2023-10-27 03:30:00
In a sandy ravine near kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, soldiers in military camouflage learn the rudiments of war. They are Russians and they came to fight once morest their compatriots.
These men belong to a new unit, made up of regarding fifty Russians and known as the “Siberian Battalion”, which joined the Ukrainian army.
“I decided to go to Ukraine to fight once morest Russia, once morest (Vladimir) Putin’s regime, once morest imperialism”explains one of the combatants, alias Grecha.
The war in Ukraine has attracted foreign volunteers from all corners of the world. Most of them joined the International Legion, of which the Siberian Battalion is a part.
With their faces covered, the men do not want to reveal their real names.
The group includes Russians, staunch opponents of the Moscow regime, and members of ethnic minority groups from Siberia.
The Siberian Battalion is not the only Russian unit fighting alongside Ukraine.
Last spring two other formations made the news following brief forays into the Russian border.
These are the Russian Volunteer Corps, which has links to the extreme right and hooligans, and the Russian Freedom Legion.
“Perfectly legal”
On condition of anonymity, the International Legion spokesman does not say how the Russians enter Ukraine. He only indicates that some come in small groups and others alone.
“We don’t put them in the trunks of cars,” he says.
“These are not illegal crossings. It is perfectly legal,” the spokesperson insists.
The recruits are under military contract and there are no prisoners of war, he adds.
Grecha was born in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, but has lived almost his entire life in Moscow, where he worked as a medical assistant.
“We must liberate Ukraine, the homeland where I was born in Crimea, it is my dream,” says this man.
He says that he participated in the Russian opposition demonstrations once morest the war but according to him they were “useless.”
“Currently in Russia there is a dictatorship,” he estimates.
“I am not in jail, I am not a foreign agent, but I have the impression that the State grants fewer and fewer freedoms to its citizens,” he explains.
This man left Russia in 2022 and tried to go to Ukraine but “at the beginning there was no organization, no information on how to enter.”
He stayed in countries that do not require visas from Russians, until he found an organization called the Civic Council, which recruits for the Siberian Battalion, in Warsaw.
“We need the victory of Ukraine”
According to Grecha, the organization agreed to take him and his wife to Ukraine. “I waited in third countries, until one wonderful day they wrote to me (…), they gave us an itinerary and that’s how we entered Ukraine,” she says.
His parents don’t know he enlisted. “We have different opinions regarding this war. “We’ve talked regarding it several times and we always end up arguing.”
Another fighter, who calls himself Chved, says that he left Russia more than ten years ago “due to political persecution” and that he has lived in Sweden since 2011.
“I participated for a long time in anti-government and anti-Putin actions, and I was forced to emigrate,” says this man who defines himself as an “anarchist.”
Other Russians who joined the Siberian Battalion included anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin.
“In this war, Ukraine is on the side of the people’s freedom,” says Chved, who has been fighting since last summer in another unit.
“What we have to do now is defeat Putin’s Russia,” he says, hoping this will trigger political change in Russia and Belarus, its ally. “And for that we need the victory of Ukraine,” he concludes.
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