Foreign fighters back Ukrainian forces in frontline

Record ID: 1705268

  • Title: Foreign fighters back Ukrainian forces in frontline
  • Date: 4th January 2023
  • Summary: NEAR RUSSIAN CONTROLLED KREMINNA, DONETSK REGION, UKRAINE (JANUARY 3, 2023) (REUTERS) A BULLET FIRES FROM A SOLDIER FROM CARPATHIAN SICH INTERNATIONAL BATTALION WHILE CONDUCTING MANOEUVRES NEAR THE FRONTLINE SOLDIER LOOKING THROUGH BINOCULARS A SOLDIER FROM CARPATHIAN SICH INTERNATIONAL BATTALION WHILE CONDUCTING MANOEUVRES NEAR THE FRONT LINE FIRES FIRE HITS TARGET BUILDING SOLDIERS GATHERED TALKING SOLDIER STANDING VARIOUS OF A SOLDIER FROM CARPATHIAN SICH INTERNATIONAL BATTALION FIRING A ROCKET PROPELLED GRENADE (RPG) (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) COMMANDER OF CARPATHIAN SICH BATTALION, BATTLE NAME ‘SVAT’ (UKRAINIAN FOR FATHER IN-LAW), AGED 59, SAYING: “I can’t overestimate their taking part in our battalion. These people (foreign fighters) are crucial for us. They are ready and have the right attitude, they want to fight. Sixty percent of them show themselves very well in combat. They support us and fulfil all their tasks while asking only very few questions. We explain their tasks to them, what we’re supposed to do, and the expected results.” VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS PRACTISING IN A FIRING RANGE VARIOUS OF COLOMBIAN SOLDIER JUAN PABLO HURTADO LATORRE FIRING WEAPON (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JUAN PABLO HURTADO LATORRE, 41-YEARS-OLD COLOMBIAN SOLDIER MEMBER OF CARPATHIAN SICH INTERNATIONAL BATTALION, SAYING: “Totally different from the internal war that we have in Colombia. It can't be compared because here there is a lot of artillery, they (Russians) hit us with missiles, with cluster bombs and it is totally different. So we are hitting it, trying to survive and trying to get the Russians out of here, from Ukraine." VARIOUS OF A SOLDIERS CONDUCTING MANOEUVRES NEAR THE FRONTLINE/ FIRING WEAPONS BRAZILIAN SOLDIER GUERREIRO CONDUCTING MANOEUVRES NEAR THE FRONTLINE FIRES (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) 39-YEARS-OLD GUERREIRO, BRAZILIAN SOLDIER MEMBER OF CARPATHIAN SICH INTERNATIONAL BATTALION SAYING: “These are bloody battles, many friends are injured but we have to recover them quickly. We will insist and persist until we win, each stage, each space that we win, each centimetre that we gain is a victory.” NAZ, LEADER DE CARPATHIAN SICH INTERNATIONAL BATTALION WHILE CONDUCTING MANOEUVRES NEAR THE FRONT LINE SOLDIERS SITTING ON TOP OF TANK SOLDIER LAUNCHING A MORTAR (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) NAZ, 33-YEAR-OLD UKRAINIAN-ARGENTINIAN SOLDIER AND LEADER OF CARPATHIAN SICH INTERNATIONAL BATTALION SAYING: “All the people who came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, wherever, none of them had seen a war like this, not one. With such precision of artillery, such precision of people, drones. It is not easy, here it plays with your mind. You have to adjust mentally because if you don't get used to the bombs falling near you very often, you go home quickly because you can't take it.” VARIOUS OF A SOLDIERS FROM CARPATHIAN SICH INTERNATIONAL BATTALION WHILE CONDUCTING MANOEUVRES NEAR THE FRONTLINE (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) COMMANDER OF CARPATHIAN SICH BATTALION, BATTLE NAME ‘SVAT’ (UKRAINIAN FOR FATHER IN-LAW), AGED 59, SAYING: “We’re always ready to fight, we look each other in the eyes and conduct our training. Before that, we interview (the foreign fighters), and have them sign a contract with all necessary legal accompaniment. That’s when they start serving in the battalion. After they reach their unit, we provide team building measures and training. We have specialists that conduct these measures on NATO standard, such as me for example. That’s why it is quite easy to find common ground (with the foreign fighters), they’re received in their specific units and conduct combat together with us.” A SOLDIER FIRING GUERREIRO DURING MANOEUVRES (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) COMMANDER OF CARPATHIAN SICH BATTALION, BATTLE NAME ‘SVAT’ (UKRAINIAN FOR FATHER IN-LAW), AGED 59, SAYING: “Why they fight with us? Because joining us was quite easy as we were a volunteer battalion. When we became an official battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the procedure (of joining) was changed a bit, to allow us to arrange their joining in a short term, legally and officially. They have the same rights as our (Ukrainian) fighters, and can fulfil their tasks without any problems.” VARIOUS SOLDIERS FIRING WEAPONS WHILE CONDUCTING MANOEUVRES NEAR THE FRONTLINE
  • Embargoed: 18th January 2023 10:07
  • Keywords: Donetsk region Russian army Ukrainian army foreign fighters war in Ukraine
  • Location: NEAR RUSSIAN CONTROLLED KREMINNA, DONETSK REGION, UKRAINE
  • City: NEAR RUSSIAN CONTROLLED KREMINNA, DONETSK REGION, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001028604012023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Foreign fighters backing Ukrainian soldiers trained near Russian controlled Kreminna, in the Donetsk region on Tuesday (January 3).
    The international legion, called the Carpathian Sich Battalion, is made up of a dozen soldiers of various nationalities and is split into three companies, one Spanish-speaking, another English-speaking and the last one Ukrainian-speaking.
    The Commander, who goes by his war name 'Svat,' said the foreign volunteers were crucial for the fight against Russia.
    “I can’t overestimate their taking part in our battalion. These people (foreign fighters) are crucial for us. They are ready and have the right attitude, they want to fight. Sixty percent of them show themselves very well in combat. They support us and fulfil all their tasks while asking only very few questions. We explain their tasks to them, what we’re supposed to do, and the expected results,” said Svat.
    Juan Pablo Hurtado, 41, a Colombian soldier who arrived in March to Ukraine, said the war had been very different to his previous experience fighting the guerrilla in his home country.
    “Totally different from the internal war that we have in Colombia. It can't be compared because here there is a lot of artillery, they (Russians) hit us with missiles, with cluster bombs and it is totally different. So we are hitting it, trying to survive and trying to get the Russians out of here, from Ukraine," said Hurtado.
    Frontlines have scarcely budged for weeks with most intense fighting raging around the city of Bakhmut, described by commanders on both sides as a "meat grinder".
    Russian forces are literally trying to advance over the corpses of their own soldiers toward Bakhmut and the military situation there remains the most difficult, Ukrainian military commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhny said.
    The governor of Ukraine's Luhansk province, which along with neighbouring Donetsk forms the industrial Donbas region claimed by Moscow, said on Tuesday Ukrainian forces had made steady advances in the direction of Russian-held Svatove and Kreminna.
    Guerreiro, a Brazilian soldier who arrived a month ago, said he had seen many injured but he would fight until the end.
    “These are bloody battles, many friends are injured but we have to recover them quickly. We will insist and persist until we win, each stage, each space that we win, each centimetre that we gain is a victory,” said Guerreiro.
    Naz, the leader of the Carpathian Sich International Battalion, is Ukrainian who lived in Argentina for 21 years. Once the war broke out on Feb. 24, Naz returned to Ukraine on April 1, 2022 as a volunteer with his brother. His brother died in battle two months ago.
    “All the people who came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, wherever, none of them had seen a war like this, not one. With such precision of artillery, such precision of people, drones. It is not easy, here it plays with your mind. You have to adjust mentally because if you don't get used to the bombs falling near you very often, you go home quickly because you can't take it,” he said.
    Russia's Defence Ministry on Tuesday (January 3) announced several offensives, including strikes launched by Russian Aerospace Forces that it said had killed more than 130 foreign mercenaries in Donetsk.
    It said missile and air strikes launched at a "hardware concentration" near Druzhkivka railway station in Donetsk had killed up to 120 Ukrainian personnel, and destroyed two HIMARS launchers and more than 800 rockets.
    Russia, which invaded Ukraine last Feb. 24, has increasingly resorted to mass air strikes against Ukrainian cities after suffering defeats on the battlefield in the second half of 2022. It denies targeting civilians.
    Elsewhere, Ukraine's military General Staff said a Dec. 31 strike on a Russian-held area of the southern Kherson region had killed or injured some 500 Russian troops.
    Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.
    (Production: Herbert Villarraga, Vanessa Romeo)
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