The International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, or the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, is a foreign military unit of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine. It was created on 27 February 2022 by the Ukrainian government at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fight against the Russian invasion of the country. In establishing the force, Ukraine joined more than 90 other nations that have recruited legionnaires and raised foreign legions over the past two centuries.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba claimed that by 6 March 2022 more than 20,000 volunteers from 52 countries had enlisted to fight for Ukraine; several thousand more reportedly joined after the announcement. Kuleba withheld further demographic details, citing that several nations forbid their citizens from fighting for foreign governments. However, a New York Times investigation in March 2023 found that there may be only 1,500 members in the organization, including many who have engaged in fraud and stolen valour.
, the legion includes people from 60 countries.
History
Formation of the unit
Under the order by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the unit was created to join the defence against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its formation was announced in a statement by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on 27 February, three days after the invasion began. Kuleba promoted the unit on Twitter, inviting individuals to apply and stating that "together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin too." On 7 March, the Ukrainian Armed Forces released the first image of International Legion soldiers in trenches on the outskirts of Kyiv and announced that new groups were being deployed to the front each day.
Some foreign volunteers came to Ukraine much earlier, in 2014, to join the fight against the pro-Russian separatists as members of Ukrainian volunteer battalions that have been created after the start of the War in the Donbas. Most foreign fighters arrived throughout the summer of 2014 and on 6 October 2014 the Ukrainian parliament voted to allow foreign fighters to join the Ukrainian military.
While these units have officially been integrated into the Ukrainian Armed Forces, some units such as the Georgian Legion still exercise some autonomy. Prior to the formation of the International Legion, the Georgian Legion was used to train English-speaking foreign volunteers. Kacper Rękawek, a researcher on foreign fighters in Ukraine, believes the majority of Western fighters prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine passed through the Georgian Legion. Other foreign volunteer battalions in the Ukrainian military included the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion and Sheikh Mansur Battalion—both formed by anti-Russian and anti-Ramzan Kadyrov Chechens, and the Tactical group "Belarus" (formed by anti-Lukashenko Belarusians).
While Rękawek said that some foreign fighters that traveled to Ukraine in 2014 held extremist political beliefs and supported the Azov Battalion or the Russian separatist forces in Donbas, the foreign fighters travelling to Ukraine in early 2022 "don't appear to be motivated, as a group, by a certain set of ideological tropes." He also said the mobilization of foreign fighters in 2022 is much larger than the mobilization in 2014. According to Rękawek, the formation of the International Legion was "an attempt to internationalize the conflict via mobilization of Western individuals for the Ukrainian cause. This development would also assist in embarrassing the Western governments, who in the eyes of many Ukrainians are not doing enough to support Kyiv."
Defection
It was reported in March 2023 that an ex-Legion volunteer named John McIntyre defected to Russia after he was discharged from the legion for bad behavior. He claimed that he went to Ukraine to help Russia fight Nazism.
Historical comparisons
Many commentators have compared the International Legion to the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War, which comprised foreign volunteers who supported the Second Spanish Republic against the Nationalist faction led by fascist general Francisco Franco that sought to overthrow the Republic.