‘Unfair fight’: Foreign legion volunteers flee Ukraine after Russian missile strike on training base

Foreigners who travelled to Ukraine to fight against the Russians have fled the country after a devastating missile strike on their training base.

A number of foreigners who travelled to Ukraine to fight against the Russians have already begun to flee the country, apparently unprepared for the brutal realities of war against a modern, conventional military.

On February 26, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky put out a call for international volunteers to join the resistance against Russia’s invasion, saying the country’s military was establishing a foreign legion unit.

While some governments including Australia have strongly discouraged their citizens from going, others have supported the move.

Some 16,000 foreigners from more than 50 countries including the US, Canada and UK have already volunteered.

But on Sunday, Russian missiles rained down on a volunteer training base at Yavoriv close to the Polish border, killing 35 people and injuring 134, according to Ukrainian authorities. Russia claims the death toll was much higher.

In the wake of the attack, a number of foreigners – already complaining about poor organisation, lack of weapons and training, and onerous contracts committing them to years of service – have changed their minds.

“Pure hell – fire, shouting, panic. And a lot more bombs and missiles,” Swedish volunteer Jesper Söder told the Associated Press, describing Sunday’s attack.

Mr Söder said he subsequently led a group of foreigners including Scandinavians, British and Americans out of the base and back across the Polish border.

“They knew exactly what to hit,” he said.

“They knew exactly where our weapons storage was. They knew exactly where the administration building was. They hit the nail on the head with all their missiles.”

Damaged buildings following an attack on the Yavoriv military base Picture: @BackAndAlive/via Reuters

Another US Army veteran who survived the attack, identified as “Hieu”, spoke to military publication Task & Purpose this week.

“I survived because the missiles struck the hard structures instead of the tents where I was,” he said. “The Ukrainians offered to take anyone who didn’t want to keep fighting after the missile strike back to the border.”

The former M1 Abrams tank crewman, who served in Afghanistan in 2012, said of the 23 volunteers who had been staying in his tent, only seven decided to stay. He said the quality of the international volunteers varied widely.

“Some were professional soldiers and are still competent,” Hieu said. “Others are drunks, people with the most marginal military experience, and people who really should not have come at all.”

Aftermath footage from the missile attack on barracks of some of the volunteers.

Looks like some Redditors got made into chutney pic.twitter.com/DK4EvZCmVP

— EnochPowell (@MogTheUrbanite) March 14, 2022

On social media site Reddit, one user posted video of the apparent aftermath of the attack to the “Volunteers for Ukraine” forum.

The user, who has since deleted his account, warned others to “think twice” before volunteering, saying the “situation is absolutely f***ed”.

“Go ahead and join the legion, by all means, but be very aware of how bad Kyiv is going to get and be aware that Russians have warplanes and you will have next to nothing,” he wrote.

“Be very acceptant of the possibility of death. Those of us who left, including SF (special forces) operators from multiple countries, are simply risk mitigating. No one wants to die in an unfair fight, and after getting absolutely f***ing pummelled by massive cruise missiles today – yeah I kind of want people to think twice before turning their life upside down to go and volunteer.”

A Russian KA-52 gunship helicopter on a mission. Picture: Russian Defence Ministry/AFP

In another comment he wrote that while the base was housing all the foreign legion volunteers, the 35 killed “were all Ukrainian mostly due to a direct hit on the barracks next to mine”.

“The base is destroyed, the weapons depot destroyed, possibly the end of the legion,” he wrote.

“About 60 people with their heads on straight including myself left after the attack. They’re sending untrained guys to the front with little ammo and s**t AKs and they’re getting killed … The guys who are there now will all be going to Kyiv and many will die, the legion is totally outgunned and has a few crazy Ukrainian leaders.”

Some on social media mocked the man’s post.

“A ‘fair fight’, does he think this is a table top game,” one Twitter user wrote.

Another said, “This demonstrates how pervasive the (Ukrainian) propaganda has been in the West. It’s clear that these guys were eating it up and really, earnestly believed they’d be rolling over terrified gopnik conscripts from day one.”

It comes after another foreign volunteer, Cardiff-based teacher Jake Priday, told The Economist that he left Ukraine after just nine hours upon realising he was required to sign an indefinite contract.

“To me it’s deceiving,” the 25-year-old British Army veteran said. “They’re selling you a dream – you can help the Ukrainian people! – but then they’re throwing you into the worst place possible in a war zone.”

Mr Priday said he convinced nearly 20 others not to sign the contracts, which would place the volunteers under Ukraine’s martial law barring any man aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country.

“I was trying to explain to them what martial law really means – and that it’s up to Ukraine to decide when it ends,” he said. “It can be extended and extended. But no one at the base was explaining this to the volunteers.”

He said he also feared what would happen if any foreign volunteers like himself were captured by Russia.

A British combat volunteer heading to Ukraine to fight. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Moscow has warned that any foreign fighters captured in Ukraine would not be afforded the same rights as lawful combatants.

“I wish to make an official statement that none of the mercenaries the West is sending to Ukraine to fight for the nationalist regime in Kyiv can be considered as combatants in accordance with international humanitarian law or enjoy the status of prisoners of war,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, according to state-run media outlet TASS.

“At best, they can expect to be prosecuted as criminals. We are urging all foreign citizens who may have plans to go and fight for Kyiv’s nationalist regime to think a dozen times before getting on the way.”

Earlier this month, one of the first British fighters to answer the call, former Army medic and Iraq veteran Jason Haigh, told The Sun he had already left Ukraine after coming face-to-face with the Russian war machine during the Battle of Antonov early in the conflict.

The 34-year-old had joined a detachment of Ukrainian troops heading to defend Hostomel Airport in Kyiv, when a squadron of Russian jets fired down rockets before a fleet of attack choppers joined in.

“All of a sudden the gates of hell opened up on us,” he said.

“We got very close to getting whacked. I’ve never experienced firepower like that, I don’t think anyone of this generation ever has. Iraq and Afghanistan was totally different. The Russians are a conventional modern army.”

Mr Haigh said after the battle – which saw Vladimir Putin’s forces prevail but at huge cost, with Ukrainian forces downing several choppers – he and an American friend were detained and beaten by Ukrainian agents looking for Russian saboteurs.

“My mate and I had a day sack with two walkie talkies and a small pistol,” he said. “We had them for genuine reasons such as if the comms network went down but they got suspicious.”

Former Army medic Jason Haigh says he was beaten by Ukrainian agents.

He said they were taken to a security service base and interrogated for three hours.

“My head was slammed down by one of the guards,” he said. “A different guy came in and I could tell by his kit that he was in an elite unit. He had cable ties and two hoods and I thought, ‘s***, this is real’. They kept shouting Russian at me but obviously I said I was English. They whacked me around eight or nine times. I had quite a bad concussion and was bleeding heavily.”

He said they were eventually released, fleeing on a train to Lviv before crossing back over the Polish border.

“I didn’t go there to die,” he said after returning to the UK. “I obviously thought about it but I had a job to do.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told any Australians thinking of travelling to Ukraine to fight not to go.

“Our travel advice is do not travel to Ukraine,” Mr Morrison said at a press conference announcing $US50 million worth of “lethal aid” for Ukraine including missiles and ammunition.

“The legal position of those who may seek to do that is very unclear. Particularly as the formation of what would be informal militias and the extent to which they are surely part of any sort of sovereign, defined force in Ukraine, that’s very unclear.”

Mr Morrison warned that any volunteers for “disorganised civilian militias” would risk being subjected to “very, very violent attacks” and it was unclear how “potluck forces” would fall under any command structure.

“Others have described those sorts of things as suicide missions and that’s not an unreasonable assessment,” he said.

But he said people were free to leave Australia, and it would be an “overestimation” to expect Border Force to know who to intercept “without that clear intent, and without any intelligence”.

“I’d say two things,” he said. “One, don’t do it. Don’t do it. Secondly, the legal position, at best, is unclear. And as a result, we would not encourage people to join in those efforts.”