Get you up to speed: Ukrainian Foreign Legion Recruits Act on Urgency, Leaving London for War

What we know so far

A WhatsApp chat made me leave London life to join Ukrainian Foreign Legion | News World

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Nathan Long had never fired a gun in his life before he volunteered to join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.

He was one of thousands of foreign recruits flooding into Ukraine’s eastern front last year in anticipation of a Spring offensive from Vladimir Putin.

Now, the winter ice is starting to thaw.

Soldiers from as far as Namibia, Colombia and Croydon have been tempted to prove themselves on the battlefield, going from concerned civilians to battle-ready rifleman earning £2,150 a month after just four weeks of gruelling training.

The 30-year-old south Londoner was one of them, signing up in 2024 to fight the war 1,500 miles away from his comfortable life as a roofer, where his major concern was the introduction of ULEZ.

Soldiers from as far as Namibia, Colombia and Croydon, like Nathan Long, have been tempted to prove themselves on the battlefield in Ukraine (Picture: Nathan Long)

A recent drone strike on a private building in Kharkiv(Picture: EPA)

Speaking to WTX News, Nathan explains that his motivation was simple: to stop Putin in his tracks ‘before it was too late’.

He remembers watching clips of the invasion on the news, where handheld footage showed terrified civilian hiding from missile strikes, and felt enraged at the situation.

Despite having his hands full as a new father he couldn’t help his thoughts returning to Ukraine, and two years later Nathan finally made the decision to join the frontline.

‘I’d rather it said on my gravestone I tried to do something rather than tell my son I didn’t as missiles rain down on Europe,’ the dad-of-one explains. ‘It was hard to leave him but I needed him to know good people can make a difference.’

After a short interview with a recruiter through WhatsApp, within two weeks of applying, Nathan had left his son a few personal mementoes and was on a plane to Kyiv for his medical.

He faced his first reality check spending his first night in the war-torn capital’s metro system cowering from Russian drone strikes.

‘When I told my commander that I needed to eat, he made me strip’

His medical the next morning was quick and simple. ‘The doctor literally extended my limbs, checked they all worked and then passed me as fit to fight,’ Nathan remembers.

He was then handed a rifle and a flak jacket emblazoned with the Union Jack spliced with the Ukrainian flag by his new commander and sent to a camp two hours outside of Kyiv.

Training was tougher than he imagined, admits Nathan. He was forced on 30km long marches carrying supplies until he nearly passed out.

‘When I told my commander that I needed to eat, he made me strip and clean my rifle instead, so I missed meal time,’ he explains.

You don’t join the Ukrainian army for the haute cuisine (Picture: Nathan Long)

Finally, he was served a plate of fish, pork and a boiled egg, his first battle was with his stomach: ‘It was vile but it was food so I ate it – apart from that fish.’

Fellow recruits included men from Zambia to Brazil, all learning together how to spot Russian booby traps and reload a rifle – something Nathan initially struggled with due to his ‘short arms’.

The team bonded by spending -5C nights together sleeping in deep narrow pits they had dug out – known as foxholes – using each other for body warmth.

‘This stretch of forest was known as the killzone’

Nathan’s first actual injury came soon after. Entirely self-inflicted, he slipped in trench training badly, dislocating his shoulder. After trying to pop it back in himself – but making it worse – he was taken to a medical tent. He recalls two ‘decent’ Brits, a Scottish man and a ‘lad from Sheffield’ bought him ice cream to help ‘soothe his throat’ as he recovered with handfulls of painkillers.

A year on, Nathan is now a battle-hardened veteran. Losing close friends, he says has changed him as a person.

He recalls his first encounter with Russian troops in a forest ambush on the Eastern front in Kharviv. It happened as the men trudged through ‘2km of pure hell’ littered with land mines, unexploded bombs and patrolled by camera drones.

Sending WTX News gruelling first-person footage of the scene, you can see ice on the ground and splintered trees, while Nathan carefully navigates foxholes – many, he says, contain the remains of his blown-up friends.

Passing each one, Nathan gives a quick prayer and then advances.

Talking about the area, he adds: ‘This stretch of forest with the bodies was known as the killzone, it was perfectly zeroed for the artillery and they had Mavics (camera drones) constantly monitoring.

2km of pure hell: Nathan Long films his unit advancing in the shelled remains of a frozen forest (Picture: Nathan Long)

‘When I finally made it back, I had a mixture of emotions I was angry because I knew my friend Osiris was still out there and the Russians would get his body.

‘But I was also happy because I knew the majority of us made it out.’

Recalling his friend, who was blown up, Nathan adds: ‘He was a sound guy, brave and loyal. He asked me to introduce him to a nice English girl one day.

‘He taught me the commands In Spanish and I still read our messages to help me remember the words I have the last picture of him ever taken.’

No regrets

Asked if he has any regrets volunteering for a war so many miles away from his family, Nathan is adamant that he has none. ‘I have people here I would consider family more so than my own back home,’ he explains.

‘We’ve all got a dark sense of humour, even when we’re in the s*** we laugh and joke.

‘My favourite one was when I turned up at a Ukrainian position after being lost. They could only find the other guy who I got separated from. Our team leader had radioed me through as a code 200, as in I’m dead.

‘They were shocked when I came back, I told them “you can only kill a spider with a slipper, not drones or artillery”. They just looked at me like I was mad.

‘The soldier I was separated had survived in a small hole. He told me if I had gone in with him one of us would have died. It wasn’t big enough for both of us.’

Nathan doesn’t mind being named and pictured by WTX News because he has been outed by TrackaNazi, a Russian-run Telegram account that doxxes Kyiv’s Western recruits, exposing their faces and social media. He explains that foreign fighter kills are valued highly and celebrated by Russian forces as battlefield casualties on both sides approach two million.

Despite the target on his back, Nathan’s focus remains on the task in hand – although he adds that after months away, what he misses most about home, aside from his son and sister is ‘a full English breakfast and a good cup of tea. I have the occasional parcel of Yorkshire Tea bags sent, but they run out so quickly.

‘Ukrainians have alright tea, but they don’t use milk and look at me like I’m crazy when I add it. It’s flavoured tea most of the time or coffee, but I don’t really like coffee.

‘I’ve tried to relax with camomile but I can’t get into it. I should probably stop smoking too but I doubt it’ll be smoking that kills me first.’

On being welcomed by the Ukrainian people, Nathan explains that the reaction can be mixed. ‘They’re good, very hospitable. There isn’t a day I would go hungry if I had no food, they wouldn’t allow it,’ he says. ‘There are some that are pro-Soviet and don’t like us, but the majority are nice.’

Nathan spoke to the WTX News on a rare respite from fighting tasked with guarding a building his unit had taken over. (Picture: Nathan Long)

‘Western support has fallen short of what is truly needed’

As hundreds of Russian air strikes pound Kyiv nearly every day since the invasion in February 2022, Nathan doesn’t foresee an end to fighting and accuses the West of dithering as his friends die.

‘Western allies have offered support, but too often it has fallen short of what is truly needed,’ he explains.

‘Delays and hesitation come at a terrible cost. I have lost numerous friends in this war—people whose lives were stolen not by fate, but by aggression.

‘We fight drones now, not men with guns. I hope one day that the rest of the world will never endure what we have here.’

He hopes Putin is held accountable for his crimes in Ukraine and dreams of joining a friend in Cambodia for sentry work when the war is over.

Oleksii Bezhevets, a representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence recruiting unit who recruited Nathan, told WTX News there had been a spike in British volunteers.

‘I like to look them in the eye and know their motivation. Some British fighters have had all the army training already in the UK but they come here to get real action,’ he says.

‘They felt like they had just been playing soldiers before coming to Ukraine.’

However, the Foreign Office warns Brits travelling to Ukraine to fight, or even assist in the war, they could be prosecuted on their return to the UK if they are believe to have committed criminal offences or posed a threat to national security.

A spokesman added: ‘The risk to life, or of maltreatment, is high.

‘The British Government’s ability to support you in these circumstances is very limited. It cannot facilitate your departure from Ukraine, your medical repatriation, or termination of your military contract.’

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