Last February, just days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy made an appeal to foreign nationals across the globe to join the war effort against Putin’s forces.
Zelenskiy called for “friends of peace and democracy” to travel to the country and join the newly established International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine.
“This is the beginning of a war against Europe, against European structures, against democracy, against basic human rights, against a global order of law, rules and peaceful coexistence,” said a statement posted on the president’s website.
“Anyone who wants to join the defence of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals?”
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Kyiv said that some 20,000 foreign nationals answered the call over the next fortnight while the legion says people from 58 countries have served in its ranks to date. These included Rory Mason, the young man from Dunboyne County Meath who died in combat last week in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.
In joining the legion, Mason followed in the footsteps of Irish soldiers who fought for foreign armies in conflicts throughout history, from the American civil war to the first world war and to the Spanish civil war.
But why did this young Meath man feel compelled to take part in the Ukrainian conflict and what motivated the other men and women from across the globe to travel to Ukraine and take up arms?
Reporters Dan McLaughlin and Ronan McGreevy join the podcast to discuss the foreign men and women, including Mason, who have travelled to Ukraine to fight against Russian forces.
Today, on In the News, we ask who was Rory Mason, and how important is the international legion to Ukraine’s war effort?
In The News is presented by Sorcha Pollak and Conor Pope and produced by Declan Conlan, Suzanne Brennan and Aideen Finnegan.
