{"id":833,"date":"2026-01-03T06:09:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/?p=833"},"modified":"2026-01-03T06:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:09:41","slug":"not-a-mercenaryin-ukraine-a-loose-network-of-veterans-follows-old-battle-lines-into-a-new-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/2026\/01\/not-a-mercenaryin-ukraine-a-loose-network-of-veterans-follows-old-battle-lines-into-a-new-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Not a MercenaryIn Ukraine, a loose network of veterans follows old battle lines into a new war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Foreign Fighters from France after Izium\u2019s counter-offensive, Ukraine, September 2022<\/em>
<\/em>Source: <\/em>Call_Sign_Vito, Instagram<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Rojava to Kyiv, foreign volunteers redefine what it means to be a combatant in a war that was never meant to be theirs. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Yevheniia Yefymova<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in the tunnels of Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, that Corey watched the invasion of Ukraine unfold on a small TV screen on February 24th, 2022. Instantly, he knew where he wanted to be next: in Ukraine. And he wasn\u2019t alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeone started a chat,\u201d Corey told me. \u201cHe invited the others, they invited their people, and suddenly it was twenty of us heading to Poland.\u201d Within a week, he landed in Krakow, Poland, with around twenty other international volunteers, veterans of wars in Syria and Iraq, on their way to join a territorial defense unit in Ukraine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every foreign fighter I\u2019ve spoken to described a similar memory – when Ukraine became their next war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

American veteran Josh mentioned how\u201c<\/em>Some old work friends and I messaged, thinking the same things I was thinking.\u201d Sebastien, an officer from Chile, told himself, \u201c<\/em>I just need to go to Poland, and from Poland, I would find a way to Kyiv.\u201d French soldier JB had packed months earlier because his friends in the Azov Regiment gave him a warning. \u201cAnd what seemed like the snap of a finger, we were contracted with the Ukrainian military,\u201d Josh recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their stories are shared across social media.  Ukraine\u2019s open call to foreign volunteers, amplified by Telegram channels, Instagram reels, and the official International Legion,  created the image of a global brotherhood. I found JB<\/a> through a collaboration post with the Legion, and it led me to find others: Corey<\/a>, known online as CivDiv on Instagram and YouTube, Josh<\/a>, who followed Corey\u2019s account, while Sebastien<\/a> and Troy<\/a> surfaced in the suggested profiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


<\/em>This article uses the names of the interviewees from their social media aliases and preferred names<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, all I\u2019ve spoken to decided to stay away from the Legion, and joined other troops – Special Forces, Azov, or training. What outsiders imagine as one global \u201cvolunteer community\u201d is, in reality, small, scattered clusters – micro-communities that rely on past wars, and what makes them reappear are personal motivations to fight again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPEN CALL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scale of the news from Ukraine has attracted over 20,000 foreigners<\/a> to enter the fight. <\/em>\u201cIt\u2019s a Wild West\u2026No matter what war it is,\u201d <\/em>says Corey. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign Fighters come for all sorts of reasons, and one thing Corey and Sebastien learned is to stay away from the surge of foreigners. Those who Sebastien describes as \u201cLARPers\u201d, referring to foreign fighters in non-combat zones,  \u201cwar tourists\u201d coming to Ukraine claiming they’re warfighters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Legion – Ukraine\u2019s open call for foreign volunteers – was theoretically the most legitimate route in. But almost every fighter I spoke to refused to join it – their personal connections provided a more reliable path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t trust the commanders there,\u201d Sebastien explained, describing a leadership still shaped by Soviet-style leadership. He adds that the Legion is made up of  \u201cColombians, Peruvians, Brazilians\u201d – 50-60% volunteers who come primarily for economic reasons, sitting on the edge between foreign volunteers and outright mercenaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


TrackANaziMerc<\/em><\/a> is a Russian-based Telegram channel<\/em>
<\/em>posting POWs or Murdered soldiers on the Ukrainian side<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BECOMING A COMBATANT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Kyiv, as Corey walked off the train, the first person he saw was Kamal, an old comrade from Syria. \u201cThe world is small,\u201d Corey said. \u201cEspecially for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corey joined the People\u2019s Defense Unit (YPG) in Northern Syria back in 2018 – a dropout ex-marine, working in the Apple Store, and filming a few YouTube videos. He said his decision to join YPG was egoistical, \u201cI felt like I wanted to prove that I was worth the uniform that I wore\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scrolling through his phone, Corey stumbled upon a video, much like the content he puts out now –  footage of a volunteer at YPG in the fight against ISIS. \u201cThat’s when I decided. I was going to go to Syria, and I put in my two weeks to leave Apple.\u201d <\/em>
<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe old YPG internationals,\u201d Corey called his unit. They weren\u2019t supposed to be anything more than a wartime formation, thrown together for a specific fight. <\/em>\u201cWe didn\u2019t mean to become a group,\u201d Corey said. \u201cWe were just twenty people in the YPG.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 
Corey and the YPG Squade in Northern Syria, 2018 (<\/em>CivDiv, YouTube<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE RESOLVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years after Syria, somewhere on the highway towards the Polish-Ukrainian border, Corey recalled, \u201cFor the first time in my life, the whole world came together for one thing – we were there to be united against evil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their fight is not to present themselves as heroes. The real landscape of foreign fighters is far more intimate. And each fighter arrives for a different reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realized that this time I didn\u2019t want to remain a spectator – I wanted to help on the ground,\u201d JB posted on his Instagram. \u201cI had planned to stay in Ukraine for only two weeks, but through the people I met, the things I saw and experienced, I understood that my place was here and that I wanted to do more to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Troy, an American who served with the Peshmerga and is now in Ukraine, explained the emotional logic: \u201cWatching my son sleep while thinking we could have been born in Ukraine was the final thing that solidified my decision.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corey said that Ukraine became another place where incompatible ideologies fight on the same side. \u201cI\u2019ve been in far-left groups multiple times,\u201d he said. \u201cMy last unit in Ukraine was right-wing; we also had an anarchist group. But good people all around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sebastien\u2019s reason is political and historical, shaped by years of watching Russia loom over Eastern Europe. \u201cWe don\u2019t limit ourselves by a flag,\u201d he said about foreign volunteers. \u201cAll that Russian imperial stuff\u2026 And then when Maidan happened, I thought, \u2018Fucking finally, it\u2019s happening.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

______________<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of Corey\u2019s journey, an Instagram message led him to YPG, but now he says, \u201cI don’t want to be a recruiter; it’s a scary thought to me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With one and a half million subscribers on his YouTube channel Civ Div,<\/a> a new person reaches out to him every hour. After 10 years of fighting, Corey\u2019s experience cautions him, \u201cI did help one or two people in the past, and one of them passed away in Ukraine. <\/em>He was following my footsteps. I don’t like the idea of that. I don’t know who these people are, and I don’t know what their intentions are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all the mythology surrounding foreign fighters, the reality they describe is blunt. <\/em>\u201cNothing about war is normal,\u201d Corey said in the end. And in that sentence, the picture becomes clear: behind the videos, the group chats, the flags, the \u201cinternational brigades,\u201d there is a chain of individual decisions, often made alone, that happen to intersect in the same war. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foreign Fighters from France after Izium\u2019s counter-offensive, Ukraine, September 2022Source: Call_Sign_Vito, Instagram From Rojava to Kyiv, foreign volunteers redefine what it means to be a combatant in a war that was never meant to be theirs.  By Yevheniia Yefymova It…<\/p>\n

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