Nearly 700 Ukrainians living in Europe have registered to join the Ukrainian Legion, a new army formation expected to soon be deployed against Russian troops on the front. After almost three years of a large-scale invasion, Ukrainian forces are seeking to recruit from among the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men living in Europe, including Poland, Germany and Ireland.
Among them, Oleg, a mechanical engineering student at Trinity University in Dublin. The 22-year-old was born in western Ukraine but has lived his entire life in Ireland. However, he intends to get involved as a volunteer: “Everyone begs me not to leave. But I want to contribute to the defense of Ukraine. If that means joining the infantry I will, I believe I would be more useful if I could help on the technological warfare side, in the use of drones for example. Fighting in the infantry is terrifying.“
On his forearm, the young man proudly displays a tattoo of the trident, symbolic of Ukrainian independence. Oleg admits, on the other hand, that he has no military experience.
To join the Ukrainian Legion, the first question asked of all volunteers during online registration is about their experience in the army or police.
Little data is available on the number of men in Ireland who joined the Legion. It is also difficult to know exactly the number of young and inexperienced candidates. According to Oleg, these questions don’t matter because Ukraine needs all the support it can get more than ever: “I really wish we could win this war without my participation, but if we were to lose this war and I didn’t do anything to contribute to the effort, I don’t know if I could forgive myself.“
The young man continues: “I feel this moral imperative to help my loved ones and do everything I can to ensure that my father comes home safe and sound, and that my friends and loved ones get through this.“His father left to fight against Russian troops in 2022. This is one of the reasons, moreover, which pushes Oleg to want to enlist in his turn.
It would therefore not only be Ukrainian refugees who fled the war who are now joining the Ukrainian Legion. The Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland, Larysa Gerasko, confirms this theory: “Some Ukrainians who lived here for 20 years before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, joined the military forces and are fighting today because they are Ukrainians and our homeland is under attack. We would be happy to live in peace again, but we will never give up, we will not capitulate.“
In recent months, Donald Trump has announced more than once that he is capable of imposing peace in Ukraine in just 24 hours. His plan would consist of ceding Crimea and the Donbass region to Russia, in exchange for a ceasefire between kyiv and Moscow.
