An American volunteer soldier pointed out the reason why many Western fighters who went to Ukraine to fight against Russia were killed.
An American who fought in Ukraine told Business Insider that Western volunteers participating in the war between Moscow and Kiev were killed in many cases because they mistakenly believed this was an “easy” conflict.
The unnamed person mentioned above said that many Western volunteers, before coming to Ukraine, were accustomed to fighting with a greater advantage over their opponents in previous conflicts. Therefore, when joining the Ukrainian ranks, they struggled very much while facing superior Russian forces in both manpower and weapons.
“A lot of Westerners come to Ukraine, they want to be heroes. I keep meeting people who go to Ukraine to fight and they often see it as a vacation and don’t really think they’re at risk of losing their lives,” he said. speak.
This person admitted to having a similar mentality when he first started fighting in Ukraine. But that changed, and he understood better how risky it was as the war continued. He admitted many times thinking about possibly dying on the front lines.
This man went to Ukraine to fight when hostilities broke out in February 2022 and he left Ukraine last December. He was deployed to the fiercest fronts in Kharkov and Bakhmut and did military medical duties.
This man said he had fought in Iraq and admitted that the pace of fighting in Ukraine was much higher.
He said that, in Ukraine, it was more difficult for soldiers to find safe shelter on the front lines when UAVs were flying in the sky, more than in any other conflict in history. Long-range weapons are also continuously deployed, placing Ukrainian soldiers under constant threat.
“Even if you are miles away from the front line, you can still be hit by rockets,” he said, admitting the situation is far different than in the Middle East, where “if you are in the base, you are seen is relatively safe”.
Several other Americans who fought in Ukraine also admitted to Business Insider that the pace of fighting in the European country is much more intense than in the Middle East.
A person nicknamed Jackie, who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, said the war in Bakhmut had no pause for soldiers to rest, unlike other conflicts.
They compare the war in Ukraine to World War I, where defenses and artillery were seen as very important factors in the conflict.
According to both American volunteers, Westerners fighting in Ukraine need to learn to adapt to the situation if they want to survive.
“You have to be willing to relearn everything you’ve been taught,” he said.
Western tactics were controversial during the war. NATO trained Ukrainian soldiers to launch a counteroffensive last summer, but the effort was unsuccessful.
Ukraine established the International Legion in 2022, allowing foreign volunteers to come to Ukraine and help the country fight Russia.
Russia calls these people Western mercenaries. In March, Russia estimated that more than 13,000 foreign mercenaries had fought alongside the Ukrainian army during more than two years of conflict, of whom nearly 6,000 had died. It is difficult for a third party to verify the numbers provided by Russia, because this could be a psychological warfare attack.
Source: compiled
