But everyone needs to learn to take things in stride, says Myser Gifford, a former Tory adviser who spent three years fighting Kurdish volunteers against Islamic State in Syria. He is now out in Ukraine himself, leading a first aid training program on the battlefield that he first introduced with the Kurds. “Some international volunteers want an a la carte war, when in fact you are forced to eat all the food, good and bad, because war is like that,” he explained. “But even the most benevolent volunteer can fight a three-year contract – six months can be more realistic.”
However, foreign volunteers with longer experience say some newcomers are just too impatient. Mamuka Mamulashvili is the commander of the Georgian Legion, another international brigade created in Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. Originally equipped by Georgian fighters – which itself waged war with Russia in 2008 – it has about 1,000 fighters. acting separately from the International Legion.
“I guess maybe 70 percent of the people who came out to join the International Legion have already gone back,” Mamulashvili tells me. “They want to take up arms and fight immediately, but they need to understand that there are procedures that need to be carried out, inspections by the Ukrainian intelligence services and so on, which takes time. Maybe faster, but we are at war – and besides, this is not military tourism. “
The three-year contracts, he insisted, were only for Ukrainian citizens – foreigners had to sign only six-month contracts, which can be terminated in 48 hours. He added: “You can’t just come here for a few weeks, shoot a few boys and then go home when the shelling starts.”
Nor, he says, is Ukraine a place for people looking for their first battle spurs. “We ourselves accept only people with already real combat experience and even then we take only a small percentage.
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