Argentine volunteers enlisting to join International Legion to defend Ukraine

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CN) — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and ongoing indiscriminate violence across the country has provoked international condemnation, with many foreigners signing up to volunteer to fight alongside Ukraine’s troops and citizens — including many from Argentina.

Although the street barricades of Kyiv have been set up 8,000 miles away from the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, hundreds of volunteers from across the nation have applied to join the International Legion, a military organization set up by the Ukrainian government three days after Russia’s invasion.

“To all foreigners who have the will to defend Ukraine and the new world order as part of the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, “I invite you to contact the diplomatic missions of Ukraine in their respective countries.” Authorities have announced visa-free passage for foreign volunteers traveling to fight Russian troops.

Almost 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refguees, while Ukrainian border officials say that 320,000 Ukrainian citizens have returned home to fight, supplemented by around 20,000 people from 52 nations who have applied to join the International Legion, according to Kuleba.

If these figures are accurate, then it would be one of the largest international brigades since the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, when socialists and communists organized to fight against the fascist forces of General Francisco Franco.

Meanwhile, Russia has also been recruiting foreign fighters, with Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu claiming 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East have signed up.

The Argentine government’s reaction to Russia’s invasion called for “all parties involved to return to the dialogue table,” while rejecting the use of armed force and emphasizing talks to ensure peace. It stopped short of defining Putin’s actions as an invasion, a response that the opposition continues to criticize as too soft.

Argentina is home to the ninth largest Ukrainian community in the world at around 300,000 people, with immigration waves reaching the country between the two world wars. They settled and created their own cultural and religious organizations, including the Pokrov Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is currently collecting donations to send to Europe.

So far, the Argentine government, working with ambassadors to Ukraine and Poland, has sent 2.5 tons of humanitarian aid through its White Helmets delegation as well as officials specializing in humanitarian, legal and psychological assistance.

Some Argentines are willing to travel to the front lines in Europe to defend Ukraine. While there are no official numbers, national newspapers estimate that hundreds of Argentines have contacted either the embassy or the International Legion directly.

There are precedents for Argentines joining foreign wars that punctuated the last century.

“Military volunteering has a long tradition in Argentina. Both in the two world wars and in the Spanish Civil War, there were Argentines who enlisted in the armies of one or the other warring sides,” said María Inés Tato, director of history and war at the University of National Defense and coordinator of the Group for Historical Studies on War.

“Most of the volunteers during the two world wars enlisted in defense of the homeland of their ancestors, such as the Anglo-Argentines who formed part of the Royal Air Force,” Tato said. “As for the Spanish Civil War, there were not only family reasons but also political ones. The Argentine volunteers came from different leftist groups while those on the right-wing joined the nationalists.”

Others were driven by the values embodied by the nation they served. “For example, France counted on the solidarity of Argentines who associated it with freedom and democracy,” Tato added, affirming that volunteers are an expression of the social activism seen around war, from the wars of the 20th century to those of today — including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While there is not one single explanation as to why some citizens are willing to risk their lives in defense of another country, Tato believes it is “partly influenced by the interpretation that Ukraine’s struggle involves the defense of basic values shared by the Western world.”

Cristian Farfan, a software developer and owner of a small computer store in the rural province of Jujuy, located in the extreme northwest of Argentina, bordering Bolivia and Chile, says he intends to go to Ukraine.

“I have no military experience but I am determined to go there and help in any way,” said Farfan. “It is difficult because of the distance but there is something at stake here and it appeals to our humanity. I believe in the liberty that they are fighting for and so want to help either on the border, such as transferring supplies, but if they need me to, I will go to the front.”

It’s uncertain if the Ukraine government will pay the travel costs of foreigners. Farfan contacted the embassy by email one week ago. “They still haven’t responded but I am raising the money to travel on my own,” said Farfan. “Everything is on my own initiative. It is difficult but with willpower everything is possible.”

Farfan has another motivation to reach Ukraine. His girlfriend lives in neighboring Poland and is willing to help him once he reaches the Polish capital, but she has reservations. “When I speak to her about my plans, some days she supports me but others not so much,” he said.

On March 13, Russian rocket attacks targeted a military base in Yavoriv, 7.5 miles from the Polish border, killing at least 35 people and injuring 134. “The news of these nearby attacks worries them,” Farfan said, “especially if one of the possibilities is for the war to escalate.”

Waiting for a response from the Ukrainian embassy in Buenos Aires, Farfan reached out to the Georgian Foreign Legion, a volunteer brigade that is fighting alongside the Ukrainian army.

Set up in 2014 in response to the war in Donbas, the Georgian Foreign Legion is made up of foreign fighters from around the world, including the U.S., U.K., and Australia.

According to the Georgian Legion, volunteers must be over 18 years of age, able to speak English, Georgian, Russian, or Ukrainian and willing to stay for at least six months. They must not be affiliated with any ultra-right, neo-Nazi, or extremist organizations.

The Georgian Legion doesn’t provide travel to volunteers, which is why Farfan is raising money for tickets and getting in contact with those who may be able to help.

Another volunteer, Luca Gallardo, who is coordinating with a group of Argentines, told a national news site that “we have always been subject to the concern of wars that threaten our society,” and that “we can stop Putin with the collaboration of Western countries. That is why we are looking to join the Ukrainian army, to fight against the threat to the West.”

Unlike the wars of the 20th century, people now feed off news received instantly through multiple screens. “The internet has undoubtedly revolutionized the experience of war in many ways,” said Tato, highlighting the instant and global access to information that is transmitted live, which creates “a more forceful awareness of the horrors of war.”

News is no longer directed by official reports or the press but “by the protagonists and direct witnesses who share information from the scene,” added Tato. “These are very powerful weapons for the circulation and discussion of information,” and are “fundamental in the organization of solidarity and resistance, from the enlistment of volunteer fighters to demonstrations of support or protest.”

One of these protests has taken the form of an anti-war mural sprayed on the city streets of Buenos Aires by street artist Maximiliano Bagnasco, who mixed images of civilian casualties from Ukraine and Vietnam.

“Last October, I was in Russia painting Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace,” said Bagnasco. “Soon after I painted there, the war started. It is crazy. It brought me a lot of pain to hear about the war.”

Bagnasco kept in touch with the Russians he met there. “I asked them what was happening and what they could tell me,” he said. “And from Ukraine, they got in touch with me and told me that as a street artist I could create a message. After deciding to create the mural, I asked the people that I met in Russia about what they thought and many of them told me that they didn’t want a war. And for me, that was the message."

During the first weekend of March, he began to paint. “I looked for a wall and while everybody was walking around, I went to paint,” Bagnasco said. “I wanted to quickly make this message.” After searching through photos of the invasion, he saw one of a woman, an injured civilian. “It was one of the most popular images at the time. It seemed to me that by putting this image it was going to directly reach the people.”

He added: “Maybe it's very raw what I'm doing, a very direct message, but I didn’t want to do something metaphorical. This is what I wanted to communicate — a strong message, like the images you see.”

Bagnasco decided to mix the image with a well-known image from the Vietnam war. “I decided to mix these images — both raw and very well known to get my message across of no to war, of not taking any side of any war, of any country,” he said. “That was what I wanted to communicate with this mural. And I think that these two images can send a strong message.”

As for foreign volunteers making their way to Ukraine, legal uncertainty hangs over them. U.S. citizens are unlikely to be prosecuted as they are technically not barred from serving in the military of another country, but in the U.K., civilians may face prosecution upon return, with British troops who leave to fight in Ukraine face court-martial, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The legal fate of Argentines heading into war in Eastern Europe is unknown, but their willingness to fight for the freedom of Ukraine is beyond doubt.

Courthouse News correspondent James Francis Whitehead is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Follow @@jayfranklinlive

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