Ukraine fears that Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month could bring US support to a crashing halt, but Americans who have taken up arms against Russia’s invasion have no intention of abandoning a country they now call home.
Thousands of foreigners answered president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s appeal for help to defend Ukraine from Russia’s all-out attack in February 2022, ranging from skilled special forces operators to idealists and adventurers with no army experience.
Many novices quickly fled Europe’s biggest war in 80 years but, after more than 1,000 days of fighting, the International Legion has become a valued part of the Ukrainian military that continues to attract recruits from around the world.
“The legion was very much a ‘Wild West’ organisation when I arrived. It was official but it was only just starting to get organised,” says John, a former US marine from Florida who arrived in Ukraine in May 2022.
Allegations of serious misconduct among some senior figures early in the war forced the legion to reform and become more professional, and John describes the difference between then and now as “night and day”.
“People are still coming over to join the legion. My team is picking up some new guys now. But now it’s more of the guys who have that drive and also the understanding of what it means to fight here.”
It means facing the kind of enemy, conditions and dangers that no western soldier has encountered elsewhere: Russia has far more troops and firepower than Ukraine, overwhelming air superiority and a steady supply of missiles, guided bombs and other ordnance from a vast industrial country that is fully geared up for a long war.
John (38) joined the US Marine Corps straight out of high school, served for six years and did two tours in Iraq between 2007-09 but was only involved in one firefight.
He describes his first combat mission in Ukraine, in the southern Mykolaiv region in summer 2022, as his “first true encounter and introduction to war itself”.
“I had never been shelled by artillery before and it was the first time I had to react to drones. We had an amphibious ‘infill’ but I had never done that with the US marines. We were crossing a small river and before we made landfall the bullets started flying overhead … On that mission we came under massive Russian artillery fire – for easily 12 hours plus, a round was landing at least every second minute,” he recalls.
The Kremlin’s full invasion of democratic, pro-western Ukraine – on the pretext that it was governed by “neo-Nazis” and would be used by Nato to attack Russia – prompted many people around the world to help however they could: raising money, delivering aid, housing refugees and, for some with a military background, offering their skills to the hard-pressed Ukrainian armed forces.
John got a degree in criminal justice after leaving the marines but then found himself “bouncing around” a series of unrewarding jobs, including security work.
“Russia invades and a week or so later Zelenskiy comes on the news and says ‘we need help from volunteers’ and lists the skillsets needed. I knew what I could do from the marines and decided I wanted to make a difference and do something good,” he says.
“I also re-evaluated the oath I took as a marine and felt that it called on me to come here and do this. We’re fighting for the freedom of Ukrainians and innocent people over here, but at the same time I think the war here does affect my home back in the States. I took an oath to defend my country from all threats foreign and domestic, and Russia is definitely a foreign threat.”
Murray, a former US airborne infantryman from Washington State, says a similar mix of motivations prompted his journey to Ukraine in April 2022.
After completing “a pretty kinetic, pretty busy” tour in Afghanistan in 2009-10, he left the US military in 2011 and was “in a weird place in my life” when Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion.
“I think a lot of veterans can sympathise with that feeling, with not really knowing what to do with yourself … Some dudes pick up civilian life where they left off, but others are a bit more like – ‘So what’s next?’” he says.
“The primary thing for me was that I saw the atrocities being committed in Ukraine … and then Zelenskiy put out a request for foreign military veterans to come over,” says Murray, who knew how to use the portable Javelin anti-tank missiles that Ukrainian forces used to wreak havoc on Russian armour in winter 2022.
“It’s not my main job but it is a skill I picked up in the US military. So I thought I could come and help someone,” he adds, without trying to gloss over the personal satisfaction he hoped to gain from experiencing Europe’s biggest war since 1945.
“I also consider myself to be a career soldier – it’s all I ever wanted to do in life, all the books I read are military-oriented and it’s the most interesting thing in the world to me. So I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to do something and to live through this historic occasion in warfare.”
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Murray and John agree that this conflict will go down in military history as the first full-scale drone war, and both dread the buzz overhead that can presage a falling bomb or the final swoop of a “kamikaze” drone that explodes on impact.
John is now recovering from a drone attack that lodged shrapnel in his femur, and Murray has a chipped vertebra suffered when the truck bringing his team back from a mission overturned in a field after the driver – using night-vision goggles – missed a turn.
The legion does not disclose personnel data, but at least two of the Irish men killed fighting for Ukraine – Robert Deegan and Rory Mason – spent time in its ranks.
Ukraine now fears that Trump – who has claimed he can end the war “in one day” – will press it to make a bad deal with Russia under threat of a halt to US aid.
“If Putin wins here, then it’s a dinner bell for other tyrants to do what they want,” John says. “You’d have to be unbelievably short-sighted and someone who can’t look past your own nose not to see that a conflict like this affects things back home, and it will have lasting repercussions if it goes one way or the other.
“I came over here for a reason and that reason still very much exists.”
Members of the legion sign a contract with Ukraine’s armed forces, receive basic monthly pay behind the front line of about €500 but can earn more than €4,000 during combat operations, and they have the right to seek Ukrainian citizenship.
“I was one of the first westerners to get citizenship (through military service). I wanted to send that message – that I’m here for the long haul and I have skin in the game,” Murray says.
“It feels like home, and Ukrainians have been more than welcoming. I find the service in Ukraine to be more satisfying than my service in the US Army … I don’t question that what we’re doing is right and that makes it easier to do the difficult stuff.”
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