On February 27, three days after the war in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba took to Twitter to reiterate a statement from the president’s office urging foreigners to join the Ukrainians in the fight against him. of the Russian army.
On March 5, the president’s office announced that it had launched a website to guide foreign nationals in the application process for membership in the International Defense Legion of Ukraine.
The site provides step-by-step instructions on how to register.
How many have joined so far?
Although it is difficult to find reliable numbers, it is believed that thousands of foreign nationals have already rallied for the case of Ukrainians.
“Very rough numbers are around 20,000. Most of them are Europeans and North Americans. There are 500 from Belarus and also some Japanese volunteers,” said Ed Arnold, a European security researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London. tank, he told DW.
The Kyiv Independent, an English-language Ukrainian media outlet, posted an update on Twitter on March 7.
Some German media outlets report that up to 1,000 German nationals are believed to have traveled to Ukraine. Responding to a request for comment, a spokesman for the German Ministry of Defense said: “The Federal Ministry of Defense has no knowledge of this according to the lines of your investigation.”
At a government press conference Wednesday, Maximilian Cal, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior, said he could not confirm the number of 1,000.
“People travel freely within the Schengen area. We assume they are Ukrainians or at least people with a German-Ukrainian background,” he said.
Concerned about the involvement of German right-wing extremists, Kall said: “The security authorities have it on their radar. They are trying to prevent departures through targeted measures. We know of only a very small, single-digit number of German right-wing extremists who they left”.
History and experience
So who are the foreign nationals involved in the war? What kind of background do they have? While the term “foreign fighters” is used everywhere, it is more accurate to describe them as volunteers.
“First of all, they are foreign volunteers because they are part of a state. It is a state mobilization. A foreign fighter is someone who participates in an uprising, an uprising and non-state actors,” said Kacper Rekawek, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Research. Extremism (C-REX), he told DW.
In terms of their background, it is a mixed bag. Some of those who enroll have little to no military experience.
“I see some of these groups and some of these guys are completely green,” Rekawek said.
Those who do not have military experience are likely to be assigned logistics tasks such as transporting supplies or personnel to the front line.
“Someone with a Class C diploma, for example, driving trucks probably uses his experience and skills better than fighting on the front line. Where he goes depends on where he can fill the Ukrainian units. The difficulty is “They obviously do not speak Ukrainian, so they will probably join national teams. So all the UK volunteers will form a UK unit,” Arnold explained.
The quality of those who want to fight is likely to vary from case to case. There will be those who do not have military experience and will be called to get the basics, such as handling weapons, in a few days.
Even for those veterinarians who have been in combat situations in the past, this is a completely different experience.
“This is a conflict between states. I have reports from veterans on the ground who say they have fired more ammunition in four days than they did on four full tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is not the same type of conflict they are used to.” , said Arnold, who was an infantry officer in the British Army serving in Afghanistan.
Is there a control procedure?
Even in the best of times, conducting a thorough history check on someone who wants to join the military can be taxing. It is almost impossible to do such a thing in a complete war.
“Ukraine does not have 20 million officers waiting for them. But there is a process that needs to work, and I think the process will continue even after they arrive there. They will be somewhat monitored on the ground, because the last thing Ukraine needs “Foreigners are causing problems,” said Rekawek, who has researched and published extensively on Western extremist fighters in Ukraine.
This concern stems from the recent history and experiences of Ukraine. The presence of foreign fighters in Ukraine, including those with extremist backgrounds, is not really new. Since 2014, more than 17,000 fighters from more than 50 countries are believed to have fought on both the Russian and Ukrainian sides in the Donbas war.
However, as Rekawek explains, this time the picture is somewhat different. While it is important to keep an eye on information about people with extremist backgrounds who may be preparing to join, the current situation on the ground tells a different story.
“I have it from Azov’s constitution [a right-wing extremist paramilitary group] she herself, who told me that 20 made it easy for Azov to grow in the front line. “So 20 out of 20,000 foreign nationals who are obviously moving,” he said.
The nature of this conflict, a war between states, is also seen as a mitigating factor in the kind of foreign nationals who are willing to risk their lives.
“The skills that are most needed now in Ukraine require previous military training, the handling of specific equipment or the organization of political resistance. “I understand that people who have such skills and are willing to risk their lives and are willing to travel to Ukraine are less likely to have extremist beliefs,” Egle E. Murauskaite, a senior researcher and simulation designer, told DW. ICONS Project with the University of Maryland.
Is it legal?
One question that comes up again and again is whether it is really legal for foreign volunteers to take part in the war. In recent days, some European and Baltic countries, such as Lithuania and Latvia, have adopted emergency legal measures allowing individuals to take part in the war.
“In addition, Ukraine had also adopted regulations two years ago that allowed foreign fighters to become citizens within a few months of submitting the application and thus formally join the Ukrainian side as Ukrainian citizens,” said Murauskaite, who is currently based in Lithuania, where it is responsible for simulating high-level civil-military crises in Europe.
The official position of the United Kingdom is a bit more opaque. Secretary of State Liz Troues recently said that “people can make their own decisions, only for former Attorney General Dominique Greaves to point out that it is illegal for British citizens under the 1870 Foreign Recruitment Act.
This law, however, was conveniently ignored for the approximately 3,000 Britons who fought in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939.
Asked to comment on the current situation, a Foreign Office spokesman told DW: “We advise them not to travel to Ukraine and anyone traveling to conflict zones to engage in illegal activity should wait to be investigated upon their return to the United Kingdom. Kingdom”.
As Arnold explains, some laws could apply to returnees depending on how they behaved in Ukraine.
“But this will not be a deterrent. They believe that if they go there and do a good job that is generally in line with their national policies, they will not be prosecuted or that if they are charged the punishment will be commensurate.”
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