MAKING THE MOST OF FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS IN UKRAINE
Just days into Russia’s attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the formation of a new military unit, the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine. In a separate call to arms over the weekend, he stated: “Every friend of Ukraine who wants to join Ukraine in defending the country, please come over. We will give you weapons … Everyone who is defending Ukraine is a hero.” On Thursday, he claimed that 16,000 foreigners had signed up.
Foreign volunteers are hardly new to war — or to Ukraine. While scholars have begun to study foreigners who join another government’s military, calling them “legionnaires” or “noncitizen soldiers,” this literature is still emerging. Therefore, while the persons traveling to Ukraine may not fit traditional notions of “the foreign fighter” — i.e., foreigners who travel to join insurgencies and terrorist groups — the wealth of studies on these conflict actors points to a number of possible short- and long-term implications.
To be sure, foreigners offer Ukrainian forces an immediate boost in manpower and may help stave off military defeat. However, the incoming stream of volunteers also poses a set of risks to the local population and to the volunteers’ countries of origin. The immediacy and severity of the Russian threat means that Ukraine will likely overlook any downrange risks in favor of having more friendly boots on the ground as soon as possible. To mitigate these risks, however, the Ukrainian government should ensure foreign volunteers enlist in regular combat units rather than semi-independent militias.
How Foreign Volunteers Could Help Ukraine
In eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists and government-aligned forces have been at war since 2014. Foreigners have played a significant role in these hostilities. Sources estimate that more than 17,000 foreigners from 50 countries have participated in the conflict since its onset. Of those, roughly 13,000 have joined the constellation of militant groups that make up the pro-Russian separatist forces. The remaining 4,000 foreign fighters have served on behalf of the Ukrainian government, whether in paramilitary militias or in the regular armed forces. Most are Russian, but not all. BuzzFeed recently reported that hundreds have come from the European Union, at least 40 have arrived from the United States, and at least 12 from the United Kingdom.
https://warontherocks.com/2022/03/making-the-most-of-foreign-volunteers-in-ukraine/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I prefer articles with some thought behind them rather than a bunch of hyperbolic tweets stitched together that tell me nothing.
