Photo: Courtesy toska husted
Ukraine’s embassy in Washington, D.C., is fielding offers from thousands of Americans who say they want to join thefight against Russian invaders.
“They really feel that this war is unfair, unprovoked,” Ukraine’s military attaché in the U.S., Maj. Gen. Borys Kremenetskyi,told the Associated Pressof the would-be foreign fighters. “They feel that they have to go and help.”
At the embassy, located in a townhouse in the Georgetown neighborhood, the foreign diplomats are charged with assisting Ukrainians in the U.S. and representing their country’s interests to the American government, which in wartime means pushing for as much support as possible and obtaining available weapons for its forces defending the country against the enemy.
“Russians can be stopped only with hard fists and weapons,” Kremenetskyi said in an interview with the AP, which notes he’d just returned from the Pentagon.
Kremenetskyi also spoke about the approximately 6,000 people who said they were eager to take up arms against Russia and who have so far approached the embassy — turning it into a point of contact for American volunteers hoping to enlist.
“This is not mercenaries who are coming to earn money,” Kremenetskyi said. “This is people of goodwill who are coming to assist Ukraine to fight for freedom.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, put a call out for volunteers on Twitter days after Russia invaded last month.
“Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries,“he wrote. “Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.”
The U.S.State Department warnedthat although it is “not a crime under U.S. law for an individual to go abroad for the purpose of enlisting in a foreign army,” it could be a violation if that person was recruited or hired in America.
Serving in a foreign country’s military could also be grounds for “the relinquishment of U.S. citizenship,” the State Department said.
Russian invasion of Ukraine.DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty
Half of those who contacted the Ukrainian embassy in Washington were rejected outright due to a lack of military experience, a criminal history or they were too old or too young to fight, Kremenetskyi told the AP, adding that a 16-year-old boy and a 73-year-old man had been in touch.
The others who said they were interested were invited to a video interview as the process continues. So far, Kremenetskyi said, only about 100 U.S. citizens — including helicopter pilots and veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with combat experience — have made the cut.
Given the go-ahead, the volunteers were told they must get to Poland on their own. They were instructed to cross the Ukraine border at a specific location. They must use their own protective gear but cannot bring weapons into the country. They will be issued munitions once they arrive.
The fighters must also sign a contract to serve without pay in the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine, the AP reports.
Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyrecently referred to 16,000 foreigners joining the International Legion in “defense of Ukraine, Europe and the world.”
Now, according to the AP, there are more than 20,000.
Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. President Zelenskyy called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
