In 2016 Ukraine decided to integrate Foreigner in their own armed forces to volunteers who flocked in after the Russian occupation Crimea and aggression in Donbassthe status of legitimate fighters and the opportunity to overcome language barriers. He did this by allowing the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of Defense to raise battalions and, if in sufficient numbers, regiments composed mostly or entirely of foreigners. The creation commissioned by the President refers to this image Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the Russian aggression, from a International Territorial Defense Legion for foreign citizens willing to fight for Ukraine. Part of the International Legion, named Special Services Groupis managed directly byintelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GRU) with the aim of conducting multiple attacks behind enemy lines, with small groups stealthily entering and exiting enemy lines Russia. Here is one list of the various groups and nationalities operating alongside the Kiev Army.
Russians and Poles together
Under this “umbrella” are enrolled today about 20,000 employeesthe best known of these are two battalions: “Freedom of Russia”who have repeatedly attacked larger and larger parts of the Russian Oblast since March Belgorod to reinforce the military weaknesses of the Kremlinhey Russian Volunteer Corps which, unlike the “Freedom of Russia Legion”, do not consist of ex-members prisoners And desertersbut from Russian emigrants from Eastern Europe. It is these two groups that are commonly referred to as the pro-Kiev Russian partisans.
Different and in many ways unique is the case at Polish Volunteer Corps, a military unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine created in February 2023 and within four months became the absolute protagonist of the war on the Belgorod Front. It’s about a special unitofficially active in the medical-logistical field, with tasks from reconnaissance and sabotage and that he understands Special Forces Veterans the Polish army and other countries Born. Also unique is that it reports directly to the top leadership of the Defense Ministry and actively collaborates with pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters.
Many Georgians
About 20% of the territories of both Ukraine and the Georgia are currently occupied by Russia and in 2008 Kyiv It was the only country that openly helped Tbilisi and sent volunteers. There Georgian Legion is a military unit consisting of Volunteers and former soldiers. It was created after the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014 and as of 2016 belonged to the 25th Battalion of Mechanized Infantry of Ukraine. Contains approx 2,000 employees. The legion commander is Georgian Mamuka Mamulashvili, who has been fighting Russia in his country since childhood: he celebrated his fifteenth birthday in a Russian prison. The Georgian Legion is still the largest foreign unit of the Ukrainian military and is actively involved in the exclusion of neo-Nazis. Because many speak Ukrainian and Russian, and given that they are a prime target for Federation artillerymen, they do not concentrate their soldiers They fight on many frontsspecialized in the destruction of command centers and logistics.
Diaspora Canadians
There Canadian-Ukrainian Brigade is a unit of the Foreign Legion founded in 2022 by rank and file volunteers from Canadian ex-servicemen from Canada’s Ukrainian diaspora: the North American giant is home to almost two million Ukrainians. Its members also deal with logistics And war medicine.
Normans from all over the world
veterans of canada, Great Britain, United States, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, France, South Africa and Poles are welcome “Norman Legion” who entered the Armed Forces of Ukraine in December 2022 and received due recognition as well trained unit.
Angry but divided Chechens
The Chechens are also fighting on the opposite side of the dictator Kadyrov, master father of Chechnya. The battalion Dzhokhar Dudayev is a volunteer military unit taking part in the war in eastern Ukraine. It consists mainly of Chechens forced to live abroad. In the battalion they also fight Muslims Ukrainians, Russians, Ingush, Azerbaijani, Tatars and other ethnic groups. The name comes from Jokhar Dudayev, who led the Chechens during the first war with Russia in the 1990s. He has been part of the international legion since March 2022 and has fought very well there Bachmut. The case is different Sheikh Mansur Battaliona voluntary non-state armed formation taking part in the war in eastern Ukraine alongside the Kiev Armed Forces, composed mainly of Chechens who emigrated from Russia after the Russo-Chechen wars.
The Belarusians: first Kyiv, then Minsk
In June 2022 it was integrated into the Armed Forces of Ukraine Pahonia Regimentmainly used in the special missions of the CRANE on Russian and Belarusian territory. The regiment’s fighters were trained by the Americans Matthew Parker, one of the top instructors of the International Legion. Like the Chechens, the Belarusians are also divided: there are those too Battalion Kastuś Kalinoŭskic became a regiment consisting of two separate battalions in May 2022. At the end of the year, the regiment received an armored vehicle BMP-2 and in January 2023 a tank T-72 captured by the Russians and announced the formation of the first mechanized unit.
In short, the International Legion fulfills an important mission, especially in the fulfillment of tasks sabotage and Secret Service, where Kiev would rather not risk its best men. On the battlefield, both defensive and offensive, its various components receive weapons and equipment from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense: it doesn’t matter whether they draw on Western or post-Soviet product depots, since both were supplied to Ukraine by allies. Hidden behind the typical fig leaf Made in USSR It means deliberately ignoring the fact that since the end of 2022, Ukraine has only relied on funds and weapons that come from abroad or are manufactured by Ukrainian companies abroad. For many months, in the spring of last year, many volunteer corps, such as the Russian or the Belarusian, seemed to be good names for marketing: now they are an asset that Kiev needs to equip and make the best use of.