Gary Bonini spent 12 years in the British Army. Later this week, he plans to head to Ukraine to join forces, to fight bravely to save the nation from the devastating Russian invasion.
Bonini, 30, will be accompanied by Joe Stirling, his former comrade-in-arms, as the Scottish couple meets President Vladimir GreenThe request of foreigners to take up arms in a new international brigade, which is formed to defend Ukraine.
“I saw what was happening in Ukraine with all the shelling and carpet bombings, then I heard their president begging for help.
Gary Bonini, pictured, spent 12 years in the British Army. Later this week, he aims to travel to Ukraine to join their forces fighting to save the nation from a devastating Russian invasion.
It caused a fire in me to do something to help them fight, “said Bonini, a veteran of two tours in Afghanistan.
He is among a wave of British citizens preparing to join the battle in Ukraine after Zelensky’s call for international volunteers was backed by Foreign Minister Liz Truss on Sunday.
Bonini says his plans have met with a “very positive” response from British diplomats, so he will travel later this week to Lviv, western Ukraine, to enlist in the Territorial Defense Force, which is made up of military reservists. .
“I was on holiday in Ukraine and I love the country, together with its people, so for me this struggle to help them feels personal.”
He admits that his parents were less positive, but says they understood his position. “How can you not feel passionate when you watch these people take up arms to defend their country?” He says. “Russia has absolutely no right to invade.”
The 28-year-old Stirling from Edinburgh, who served with Bonini in the Royal Regiment of Scotland for six years and once went on holiday with him to Kyiv, says he was inspired by the people he met there – although he admits that he likes to “get into scrap metal.
He served in Iraq, although he said it was spent mostly on guard duty and was “boring because nothing happened”.
Zelensky made a dramatic call for foreign volunteers this weekend when he announced the creation of a new military unit, the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, to combat Russia’s “evil” tactics.
“This is the beginning of a war against Europe,” the president said.
The 30-year-old Bonini (pictured) will be accompanied by Joe Stirling, his former comrade-in-arms, as the Scottish couple responds to a request from President Vladimir Zelensky for foreigners to take up arms.
“Anyone who wants to join the defense of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against Russian war criminals.”
Zelensky’s unit has been compared to the international brigades of the Spanish Civil War, which include the famous writer George Orwell, who fought with the Republicans against General Franco’s fascists.
At least two British citizens are already serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the 1st Marine Battalion and are believed to be taking part in one of the fiercest battles around the industrial port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.
Sean Pinner, 48, who spent seven years in the British Army, was promoted to commander of his naval unit six months after joining.
A native of Bedfordshire, he now lives in Mariupol with his wife Larissa, a native of the city.
A resident of the photo cleans a bomb shelter under a non-functioning cinema while the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues in Zhytomyr
He told The Mail on Sunday last month: “Russia has started this war – but we will fight them, make no mistake.”
He served with Aiden Aslin, 28, a former Newark caregiver in Nottinghamshire who had previously fought with Kurdish militias against Islamic State in Syria.
He was detained on suspicion of terrorism after returning home, but the charges were dropped.
The two were among at least ten British volunteers who took up arms against pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in the 2014 war between Russian President Vladimir Putin that killed more than 14,000 people.
These include Newport-born Michael Jenkins – who abandoned recent plans to start a new life working with a New York-based defense engineering company and returned this week to join his wife’s battle for the nation.
People remove debris on the site of a military base building that Ukrainian forces say was destroyed by an air strike in the town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region
Another veteran of the British Army, Jenkins, is worried about his wife Sabina, who has stayed with her grandmother in Pervomaisk, a city in central Ukraine about 120 miles from some of the heaviest battles against Russian forces in the southern coastal areas.
“She is safe, but I sympathize with the Ukrainian people,” he said. Jenkins, who left Ukraine’s Marines late last year, is gathering a group of foreigners to join the fight against Putin’s invading forces.
They are due to meet later this week in Slovakia before traveling across the border.
He claims to have received “hundreds” of approaches through social media – and says his latest group will include ten Britons and eight more from the United States.
Ukrainian serviceman loads ammunition into ammunition in central Zhytomyr, Ukraine, after Russia’s invasion last week
Another report says a squad of ten special forces veterans – including three Britons and a German trained in close combat and counter-terrorism – are in Poland preparing to cross the border into Ukraine.
Other Britons who are interested in volunteering have contacted 27-year-old Harry Jackson, founder of UK Aid for Ukraine, a Facebook group that aims to deliver military and medical aid to the country.
Jackson said he linked potential recruits to Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian National Legion, a group of foreign fighters formed in 2014 and now part of Kyiv’s territorial defense forces.
Yesterday, she posted instructions on social media for foreign recruits, instructing them to contact their embassies first before applying to the Ukrainian armed forces and receiving military equipment such as bulletproof vests and helmets.
Mamulashvili said yesterday that there was a “very large group” of about 60 Britons traveling by road to Ukraine via Poland. “I expect them here with equipment and supplies for the next few days,” he said.
He added that they were “former British soldiers who could be trusted to face the Russian aggressors and, most importantly, to win.”
- Additional report by Kate Baklitskaya