Entire Ukrainian Battalion Formed By 550 Canadian Freedom Soldiers

0
1766

According to a publication called The National Post, “So many citizens of Canada have shown up in Ukraine to fight for the country’s new foreign legion, the organization has set up a separate Canadian battalion, says a Ukrainian government source.” That battalion, which is based in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv, was comprised of 550 fighters as of the time of The National Post’s reporting. The apparent source for the publication — a representative of the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine — explained that “International legion volunteers are usually kept together for logistics purposes as it is easier for communication, to avoid language barriers.” Separately, hundreds more Canadians are apparently angling to soon join the fight in Ukraine against Russian invaders.

Borys Wrzesnewskyj, a former member of the Canadian parliament who has been assisting in bringing on international volunteers for the defense of Ukraine, said that “what is so heartfelt is that we have so many Canadian ex-military who are stepping forward and understand that this is just so fundamentally wrong… They by nature are protectors and… they are willing to step forward, travel to Ukraine… They also are aware this isn’t just the battle for the freedom and democracy of 44 million Ukrainian citizens. Today, the people on the front lines of Ukraine… are defending the north-Atlantic democratic space.” Already, there have apparently been some 20,000 international volunteers joining the fight against Russian aggression, with 52 countries represented by these groups — and the numbers would appear set to continue rising as the struggle in Ukraine continues through atrocities like the recent Russian bombing of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. U.S. citizens have been among those seeking to join the confrontation against Putin.

Among other potential moves to help Ukraine, the Ukrainian International Legion source for The National Post added that free travel for those hoping to join the Ukrainian defense would be a great help — “if every airline donated at least five to 10 seats on the plane tomorrow, we could have been able to get all those 20,000 volunteers (from around the world) faster to Ukraine,” as the source put it.

On the organized military front, the Biden administration has maintained that U.S. troops will not be deploying to Ukraine to fight in the unfolding war — although U.S. military personnel have recently been involved in shoring up the defenses of countries that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The U.S. has also resisted calls for the establishment of a no-fly zone in Ukraine, which would apparently essentially entail going to war against Russian personnel — the “zone” would require that certain aircraft violating its parameters be shot out of the sky. In the meantime, Ukrainian defenders from all walks of life and places of origin have scored substantial victories against Russian invaders, although obviously not without substantial losses on Ukraine’s side as well. In one recent instance, Ukrainian personnel apparently wiped out some 30 Russian helicopters in one sweep at an airfield around the Ukrainian city of Kherson, bringing the total number of Russian helicopters that have been removed from the battlefield by Ukrainian forces to over 80.