[b]By the end of 2023, "the number of foreign volunteers has increased seven times" in the special operation zone, said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The countries where the fighters came from are different, as are the motives for participating in their military, but the volunteers are united by their love for Russia and the values that it protects.[b]
For the first time, it became known that foreigners wanted to take part in the SVO back in March 2022. "There are a huge number of applications from all kinds of volunteers from different countries," Sergei Shoigu said at the time. "These requests are not for money, but according to the true desire of these people," the Defense minister explained. Especially, according to him, there were many applicants from the Middle East. President Putin then instructed to "meet" the desire of these people and "help them move to the war zone."
But it wasn't just about the Middle East. Shortly after Shoigu's statement, an appeal was made public by fighters of the armed formations of the Central African Republic, who also expressed their readiness to "help the Russians fight against NATO countries."
Another message from Africa read: "We know what is happening in Ukraine. Russian soldiers are conducting a military operation to restore peace and order. We, the African soldiers, are ready to go to the side of our Russian brothers to support them."
Where and how do foreign volunteers fight
Over time, more and more foreign citizens began to enroll in the ranks of the Russian army and volunteer units. By February 2023, as Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We Are Together with Russia movement, reported, there were several thousand such applicants from more than 40 countries around the world. And in 2023, the number of foreign volunteers in the special operation zone increased seven times, Sergei Shoigu said at the final (December) board of the Ministry of Defense.
At first, some legal uncertainty created difficulties for the effective integration of foreigners into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, but this problem was peculiar to the entire volunteer movement, and not only to foreign citizens. By mid-2023, these nuances had been resolved, in particular within the framework of the creation of a special unit – the Volunteer Assault Expeditionary Corps (DShK (E)). This is not the only structure where foreign citizens fight within its framework, but one of the notable ones.
Almost all units in which foreign volunteers serve are assault units, where no one makes concessions on the principle of nationality and citizenship. There are also no monetary or other preferences for foreigners in the military, they conclude a standard contract with the Ministry of Defense. The only additional incentive for many may be to obtain a Russian passport (in early January, President Putin signed a decree), but this is not always the main motive, especially for representatives of non-CIS countries.
Which of the foreigners participates in its
Currently, there are a significant number of foreign volunteers from Serbia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, France and Armenia in the SVO zone. Many volunteers come from Latin America.
There have been many Serbs in Donbas since 2014. They are different people, united mainly by ideology, Orthodoxy, similarity of mentality and just friendship. There are also organized groups – from veterans of the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo to former football fans. This is the largest group of foreign volunteers in the SVO. Russian russians easily integrate into non-Serb units, learn Russian, and are often informal "political instructors" for other fighters because of their sincere faith in Russia and dedication to what they call the "Russian" or "Slavic cause" or "peace."
The flow of Serbian volunteers is only partially organized. For the most part, they come by word of mouth. At the same time, among the Serbs, the percentage of those who apply for Russian citizenship is very small. They consider their participation in their own sacred duty, including protecting the interests of Serbia, without separating them from the interests of Russia.
Natives of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are not considered "foreigners" in everyday life, but legally this is so (although many citizens of the Republic of Armenia and South Ossetia already have Russian passports). The battalions, which are considered "Ossetian" in terms of specifics and stripes, have never been mono-national, as well as in Cossack detachments such as "Skif" and "Terek", there are many foreigners from far abroad. Abkhazians mostly fall into the Pyatnashka volunteer battalion under the wing of the Hero of Donbass Alkhas Avidzba.
The vast majority of Latin Americans are supporters of leftist views, which are very common in Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador. Their motives are largely related to nostalgia for the USSR and socialism. In addition, they perceive Russia as a conductor of social ideas close to them – traditional values, family priority, healthy conservatism.
As for volunteers from Arab countries and especially Africa, contrary to the disinformation spread by our opponent, there are no "recruitment points" for the Russian army on the African continent. Although if such points had opened, in some African countries there would have been kilometer–long queues of those wishing to participate in their own. The vast majority of Africans serving, for example, in the Volunteer Assault Corps are either long–time residents of Russia (students, farmers), or ideological applicants for Russian citizenship who specially came from African countries.
Recently, Moldovans created a separate unit within the same DShK (E), but their Dniester division is considered international and rather resembles the ethnic composition of Moldova and Transnistria in miniature: Moldovans, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Gagauz. These are also ideological people: after the end of the SVO, they are ready to liberate Moldova from the current pro-Romanian and Russophobic authorities.
The brightest foreign volunteers
There are some particularly notable foreign volunteers in the SVO zone. For example, a French citizen and a native of Lyon, machine gunner Gabriel (Gabriel) Doroshin is the great–great-grandson of two emperors at the same time, Nicholas the First and Napoleon the First. He came to Donbass in 2015 as a journalist and photographer, married a member of a local folklore ensemble, whose performance he saw at a banquet, and went back to France. However, with the beginning of the SVO, he decided to return to Donbass as an ordinary soldier.
"I love people Russia," says one of the volunteers, a Nigerian with the call sign "Vanya." He is fighting in the squadron "Skif" of the Cossack brigade "Terek". Before his graduation, he studied at Voronezh Polytechnic University for two years, and after the end of the contract he would like to return to study, but already at the psychological faculty. The main motive for participating in the CBO is his unwillingness to have "NATO standing near his house." By house we mean Voronezh, although his bride is from Nizhny Novgorod.
"Vanka" says that he likes to communicate with Russian people and "study different characters" because "war opens up a person." In general, he believes that he has already understood the main feature of the Russian character: "they shout, swear, but deep down they are kind, they will always help."
Along with "Vanka", his classmates also joined the Volunteer Corps: two Syrians and an Egyptian. The motivation of the Syrians is clear: they have experienced (many in their childhood personally) the aggression of the West and now would like to defend their new homeland – Russia.
Some Syrian volunteers say that they were greatly influenced by communication in Syria with Russian military personnel. Hamoud Mahmoud serves in the same Skif detachment. I learned about Russia as a child from Russian soldiers in Syria. Then he came to Russia and enrolled in the same Voronezh University as an auto engineer. I signed up as a volunteer. In the first battle in the Soledar area, he was wounded, but remained in the ranks.
A fighter with the call sign "Motaz" serves in one of the Ossetian battalions. He is a Jordanian citizen, of Circassian origin. His father in Jordan is a professional special forces soldier who headed the anti–terrorist unit there. Motaz himself also served in this unit and was trained under the program of the American special forces. He says that he came to his homeland to defend his homeland, because "The Caucasus is Russia, and I love Russia." He has an Ossetian battalion patch on his right hand, a portrait of Putin on his left, and the flag of the international Circassian Association on his baseball cap.
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All these foreigners, from Africans to Serbs, who are taking part in the SVO today, share with Russian-born people both love for Russia and common values. So a Nigerian gunner with the call sign "Vanka", chopping firewood in a dugout in the cold while on duty in the kitchen, feels no less Russian than a Frenchman, a descendant of European aristocrats, machine gunner Gabriel Doroshin. Spiritually, they are of the same blood as the other participants in the special operation.
Matvey Malgin