(Staff article from the ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA on 08 March 2022.)
Within days, Mr Ferkol said, he presented himself at
a military recruiting office in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, hoping to
be taken on as a frontline paramedic. "I told them I wanted to triage
patients," said the 29-year- old, who has no combat experience. "There
was a Finnish guy there too, and he was like, 'I just want to kill
Russians.'"
Ukraine has established an "international" legion for people from abroad and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly urged foreigners to "fight side-by-side with Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals" to show support for his country. Last week, Mr Zelenskyy said more than 16,000 foreigners had volunteered, without specifying how many had arrived.
Some foreign
fighters arriving in Ukraine say they are attracted by the cause: to halt what
they view as an unprovoked attack in a once-in-a-generation showdown between the
forces of democracy and dictatorship.
For others, many
of them veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Ukraine war also offers a chance
to use fighting skills they felt their own governments no longer appreciated. Reuters
interviewed 20 foreign fighters or others involved in the effort, and some said
Ukraine is struggling to vet, equip and deploy them.
And alongside
battle-hardened veterans of war, people are arriving with little or no combat
experience, offering limited value in a war zone under constant, terrifying
shelling by the Russian military. One man, who identified himself as a British
military veteran, referred to these recruits as "bullet-catchers".
A senior Ukrainian official in Lviv involved in processing newly-arrived foreign volunteers, Roman Shepelyak, said the system to receive, train and deploy foreign fighters was still in its infancy and that the process would get smoother in the coming days. Ukraine's Ministry of Defence declined to comment.
Russia launched
its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, calling it a "special
operation" to demilitarise Ukraine and capture dangerous nationalists. This
time two weeks ago the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remained
hypothetical. Yet the grim escalation of war between Moscow and Kyiv is now
devastatingly real.
Ukraine's armed forces are heavily outnumbered by
Russia's but have mounted significant resistance. Among those who have arrived
to fight for Ukraine are dozens of former soldiers from the British Army's
elite Parachute Regiment, according to an ex-soldier from the regiment.
Hundreds more would soon follow, he said.
Reuters was
unable to corroborate those numbers. Often referred to as the Paras, the
regiment has in recent years served in Afghanistan and Iraq. "They're all
highly, highly trained and have seen active service on numerous
occasions," the ex-soldier from the regiment said.
The Ukraine
crisis will give them purpose, camaraderie and "a chance to do what
they're good at: fight". Michael Ferkol said there were many people with
Ukrainian ancestry in his hometown, Chicago. He wanted to go to Kyiv, the
capital, "and help out".
"I'm a
little nervous, to be honest," he said, making his way through crowds of
refugees at Lviv train station on Saturday, hoping to board a train to the
frontline. But at the same time, it's not about me. It's about the people that
are suffering."
For some,
travelling to Ukraine, even from far-away countries, was the easy part. Those
who hadn't brought body armour, helmets and other equipment with them were
struggling to source them in Ukraine, according to several fighters Reuters
spoke to.
Some veterans
were sharing information on equipment and logistics through invite-only
Facebook or WhatsApp groups with names like "Have Gun, Will Travel". These
groups contain appeals for equipment, such as body armour and night-vision
goggles, or for foreign veterans who are snipers or who can train Ukrainian
soldiers in how to use sophisticated weapons that Western countries are
sending.
With a vast
mobilisation of Ukrainian men underway, the country has plenty of volunteer
fighters. But there is a shortage of specialists who know how to use Javelin and
NLAW anti-tank missiles, which professional soldiers train for months to use
properly.
Many of those arriving in Lviv end up at the
semi-fortified offices of the Lviv regional administration, where their
paperwork is checked by Mr Shepelyak. He heads the region's department for
international technical assistance and cooperation. He acknowledged the system
for processing those offering to fight was still in its infancy.
On Friday, when
Reuters visited, six foreigners appeared at Mr Shepelyak's office, including a
Polish military veteran called Michal and a giant, heavily-tattooed Dutchman
called Bert. Both men declined to give their full names.
More foreigners were arriving every day, Mr Shepelyak told Reuters. "If they have such a desire and persuasion to serve a foreign country, it matters. They are important." Mr Shepelyak said he vetted their paperwork, but not their combat experience, which was evaluated at a military base outside Lviv where they were sent next. He added that those recruited into the Ukrainian army would be paid in line with other soldiers.
Other foreign
fighters told Reuters they were bypassing the formal processes and heading
straight for the eastern front, hoping to get weapons and orders from the
Ukrainian military upon their arrival.
Anthony Capone, a wealthy healthcare entrepreneur in
New York City, said he is providing funding for hundreds of ex-soldiers and
paramedics who want to go to Ukraine. But he said he had delayed their
departure "to give the Ukrainian army another week to improve their
enlistment process for those entering the volunteer corps".
So far,
according to Mr Capone, only a "small number" had arrived in
neighbouring Poland. Mr Capone had posted on LinkedIn his message offering
funding, thinking that 10 or 15 people would reply. "Right now, I'm at about 1,000," he said. Mr Capone added he was only funding
ex-soldiers whose military credentials he could verify or paramedics who currently
worked in an emergency trauma setting.
About 60 per
cent of those who had been in touch were American and 30 per cent European,
with the remainder hailing from at least 25 countries as far-flung as Colombia,
Japan and Jamaica, Mr Capone said.
Most were
ex-soldiers. The rest were emergency medics or critical care nurses. They're
willing to "defend a country they've never visited," said Mr Capone,
a specialist in computational learning theory.
The US
government has discouraged citizens from travelling to Ukraine to combat
Russian forces. Some countries have issued stronger warnings, including
Britain. Others, such as Canada or Germany, have cleared the way for their
citizens to get involved.
In central Lviv
on Thursday, a burly, Russian-speaking Canadian who identified himself only as
Sig heaved bags of equipment into the back of a mini-van he had bought in
Poland and driven to Lviv. He wore a flak jacket bristling with medical tools
and said he usually worked as a civilian paramedic. Another of Sig's
four-strong team was an American who said he was born in the former Soviet
republic of Georgia and had fought Russians "for generations".
In Sig's bags
were hundreds of kilograms of equipment, including medical supplies and
military rations known as MREs, or meals ready to eat. Sig said his team
planned to help train Ukrainian volunteers in Lviv for a day before heading
straight for the front. "I have a connection in Kyiv who will help us
out," he said.
Standing outside the ticket hall of Lviv station on
Sunday were a group of British men in military uniform, waiting for a train to
Kyiv. They were in high spirits, often exchanging fist-bumps and handshakes
with Ukrainian refugees who thanked them for fighting for their country.
They were led by Ben Grant, a strapping Englishman from Essex, who said he had served in Britain's Royal Marines and had just completed a stint as a security advisor in Iraq. He was unclear whether his men would be deployed independently or as part of a Ukrainian unit. Of the Ukrainian soldiers, Mr Grant added: "They seem strong — really strong. I'm more than happy to fight next to them".
