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☆ Ukraine was a magnet for foreign fighters. After 2 bruising years, many are disillusioned or dead.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-11 | by ( Cameron Manley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Zelensky's International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine (ILDU) was born, echoing the International Brigades that fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. According to Ukrainian officials, dozens of Ukrainians were killed and more than 100 foreign volunteers injured, ending their campaigns before they began. AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, FileUkraine originally said 20,000 foreign volunteers had signed up to fight. That could prove "very enticing" for some foreign volunteers, Bocchese said. AdvertisementAn April 2024 increases payments for Ukrainian volunteers, adds new punishments for draft dodging, and seeks to compel Ukrainian men living abroad to come home.

Persons: —, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Carl Larson, Marco Bocchese, Rodrigo Abd, Bocchese, Matteo Pugliese, Pugliese, Larson, Oleksandr Shahuri, Zelenskyy, Lukatsky Organizations: Ukraine's, Service, Legion of Territorial Defense of, Brigades, Royal United Services Institute, International Legion, Legion, Webster Vienna Private University, AP, Washington Post, 59th Motorized Brigade, Company, University of Barcelona, Georgian Legion, International, Army, Green Beret, Navy SEAL, State Department, National Guard, Bolivar Battalion, Associated Press Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, Spanish, Ukraine's, London, Iraq, Kharkiv, Alabama, Russian, Lviv, Bucha, Kyiv, Austria, Montenegro, Kosovo, India, Latin America, Ukrainian, Lyman, Bolivar, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuelan

☆ Fears Ukrainian POWs have been coerced to fight against their fellow citizens by Russia, says ISW
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia is training Ukrainian prisoners of war to fight on the front lines, Russian media reported. AdvertisementAdvertisementRussian authorities are planning to deploy a battalion of Ukrainian prisoners of war to the front lines, Russian media reported. The outlet described it as a volunteer battalion including about 70 prisoners from various penal colonies. A Russian battalion consists of two-to-four companies and has from 250 to 1,000 people. AdvertisementAdvertisement"Russian authorities have likely coerced Ukrainian prisoners of war into joining a 'volunteer' formation that will fight in Ukraine, said the Institute for the Study of War.

Persons: —, Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Andrii Tyshchenko, Tyshchenko, Andriy Yusov, HUR Organizations: Geneva Convention, Service, RIA Novosti, Russian, Institute for, Siberian Battalion, International Legion of, Armed Forces of, Defense, Main Intelligence Locations: Russia, Russian, Donetsk Oblast, Geneva, Ukrainian, Ukraine, Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kyiv

☆ Ukraine says it created a whole battalion from Russians who signed up to fight their own country
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Siberian Battalion largely consists of people from ethnic minorities in Russia. The battalion is expected to be sent to fight against Russia very soon, Bloomberg reported. AdvertisementAdvertisementUkraine said Wednesday that it had created a whole battalion from Russians who wanted to fight their own country. The battalion does not recruit captured Russian soldiers, he added, as per the Kyiv Post. He called his battalion the Siberian Battalion.

Persons: —, Andriy Yusov, HUR, Yusov, Vladislav Ammosov Organizations: Siberian Battalion, Bloomberg, Service, International Legion of, Armed Forces of, Defense, Main Intelligence, Russian Federation, Kyiv Post, New, Radio Free Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kyiv, Russian, Eastern Siberia, Europe, Radio Free Europe

☆ Foreigners, some trained by the US, are fighting on both sides in Ukraine, seeking cash and adventure
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The war in Ukraine has drawn foreign fighters to the armies on both sides. While Russia is recruiting mercenaries, Ukraine has become a magnet for volunteers who want to fight Russian aggression or find adventure. By mid-2022, after Ukraine formed its International Legion of Defense, 20,000 volunteers from 52 nations had joined, according to the Ukrainian government. A new study by Italian researcher Matteo Pugliese found a bewildering array of backgrounds and motivations among the members of Ukraine's International Legion, a battalion-sized force. Ukraine's International Legion of Defense has drawn volunteers from all over the world.

Persons: —, Nepalis, Vladimir Putin, Rahmatullah Alizadah, Matteo Pugliese, Pugliese, Abraham Lincoln, Michael Peck Organizations: Service, Gurkha, Russian, Nepal Express, Nepalese Army, Getty, Moscow —, Legion of Defense, Spanish Civil War's, Brigades, Nazi, Ukraine's International, NATO, ISIS, Ukraine's, Legion, Defense, Ukraine, Facebook, Kyiv, Foreign Policy, Twitter, LinkedIn Locations: Ukraine, Wall, Silicon, Russian, Nepal, Dubai, Russia, Britain, Europe, Kabul, Xinhua, Afghanistan, Spanish, Canada, Syria, Australia, Poland, North America, Latin America, American, Syrian, Forbes

☆ Bakhmut: Wagner forces claim to have taken the eastern Ukrainian city. But Kyiv's forces could still exact a heavy toll
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Sam Kiley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Kyiv rebuffed claims that Russian forces have captured the city in the eastern Donetsk region. LIBKOS/APYevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner private military group, pictured in a screengrab from May 20, 2023, insisted that his men captured Bakhmut after months of fighting. A Ukrainian serviceman checks Russian positions in Bakhmut on May 11, 2023. He said regular Russian troops were incompetent cowards. And they’re being flanked to the north and south by Ukrainian troops.

☆ Fact Check-New York subway ad urging welfare recipients to join Ukraine war is not authentic
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An advertisement seeking to recruit U.S. citizens on the welfare scheme to the International Legion of Ukraine, purportedly seen on New York underground trains, is not an official poster. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington told Reuters that the poster is not real. The text on the poster which carries the logo of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) reads: “Tired of living on welfare? Join the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine.”The International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine was formed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and recruits foreign citizens to fight for Ukraine in the war (fightforua.org/). The poster calling on welfare recipients in the U.S to join the war in Ukraine is not authentic.

☆ Ukraine's air force is now allowing foreigners to sign up as pilots as it pushes for Western fighter jets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ukraine's Air Force will now allow foreigners to serve as pilots, engineers, and specialists. Ukraine said that its air force has been inundated with offers from people willing to fight Russia. Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for the commander of Ukraine's air force, said in a statement Thursday that foreign citizens will be able to join if they have suitable military training. Despite bipartisan calls in the US for President Joe Biden's administration to send F-16s, Biden himself said on February 24 that Ukraine "doesn't need F-16s now." Serhii Holubtsov, chief of aviation of Ukraine's Air Force, however, told The Times of London that Ukrainian fighter pilots would be ready to fly F-16 jets after fewer than six months of training.

☆ A US veteran joined Ukraine's International Legion, then made a shock defection to Russia. Ex-comrades say he was incompetent and left behind a trail of chaos.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Alia Shoaib | Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Those who fought with him in Ukraine told Insider he was unstable and erratic on the battlefield. "Bama is a highly unstable character," Nance told Insider. The warning signs continued, as McIntyre told Smith that he was wanted by the FBI for threatening to kill personnel at the White House, Smith. "As time went on, he confided to me that he had converted to Islam and that he was planning to do a jihad," Smith told Insider. "When you screw up, a company gets rid of you, pulls you off the line, and sends you back to the battalion," Nance told Insider.

☆ A Ukrainian soldier died on the battlefield in Bakhmut. His death has sparked a fierce dispute between some American veterans and a volunteer trainer.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

While entering a house in Bakhmut, two Ukrainian soldiers were ambushed by Russian troops. While he was doing laundry, Wang said a dark-green SUV suddenly pulled up and he heard a Ukrainian soldier shout, "De medyky?" More muscle than the pork ribsWang, by his own admission, decided to take charge of rescuing the wounded Ukrainian soldier. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesIn the phone conversation with Insider, Wang defended his involvement in the death of the Ukrainian soldier. A wider tapestry of issuesThe SOLI instructors said the Bakhmut deaths were just one part of a wider tapestry of issues caused by Wang's inexperience and overzealousness.

☆ Conor Kennedy, RFK's grandson and Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriend, says he went to fight in Ukraine and was 'willing to die there'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Conor Kennedy says he fought on the northeastern front of the Ukraine war. Kennedy said he kept his real name private when fighting with Ukraine's International Legion. In an Instagram post on October 14, he wrote that he joined Ukraine's International Legion of foreign fighters this year. "I didn't want my family or friends to worry, and I didn't want to be treated differently there," Kennedy wrote. Representatives for the International Legion did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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