Ukraine: Foreigners wait for weapons in chaos of war

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — They are idealists who left their jobs on the battlefields in Ukraine, looking for a cause or simply to fight.

Many foreigners have responded to the Ukrainian president's call to join the resistance against the Russian invasion, but the international brigade they have formed is, for now, an improvised and uneven army.

The recruits say they are often left waiting for weapons and training, which leaves them feeling unprotected.

“Pure hell: flames, screams, panic. And many bombs and missiles.”

This is how Swedish volunteer Jesper Söder described Sunday's attack on Yavoriv, the military training base in western Ukraine attacked by Russian missiles where 35 people were killed, according to Ukrainian authorities. Russia says that the balance of casualties was much higher.

Söder said he led a group of foreigners that included Scandinavians, British and Americans off base and across the border with Poland.

He told the Associated Press by phone from Krakow, Poland, that he didn't know how many foreign volunteers were being trained at the base, but he estimated that there were hundreds. Unlike Söder, who fought alongside Kurdish fighters in Syria against the Islamic State group, many of the volunteers in Yavoriv had no military training, he said.

Foreigners — some of whom have never fired, but are willing to die — have come to Ukraine from other European countries, the United States and elsewhere. They expect to be equipped, trained and prepared for battle.

But some discover upon arrival that there are no adequate weapons, protective equipment and training for a multinational force lacking organization and a sense of chaos.

Russia's threats to attack what it calls foreign “mercenaries”, as it says it did at the base in Yavoriv, increase the level of risk.

“It's chaotic right now. It is disorganized and you can get into trouble very quickly if you are not with a group of people who are very alert,” said Matthew Robinson, a British man who had been living in southern Spain.

Robinson and several other volunteers were interviewed this week on the outskirts of Lviv, where foreign fighters are receiving training and instruction.

Newly arrived, Robinson remains cautious as he tries to understand things. He said that there are “many legions, many false promises, a lot of misinformation.” In addition, there is a “huge language barrier” and “a lot of people here who haven't fired a gun.”

Russian threats to attack them increase the dangers faced by foreign fighters. Russia says it killed 180 “mercenaries” in Sunday's attack on the training base and Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Monday that Russian forces will have “no mercy for mercenaries wherever they are on Ukrainian territory.”

The Russian armed forces are tracking the movements of foreign fighters and will strike again, he said.

Söder's account of the attack on the training base indicates that it was not indiscriminate.

He claimed that the bombing of the base was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

“They knew exactly what to attack. They knew where our arsenal was. They knew exactly where the administration building was. They hit the nail on the head with all their missiles,” he told the PA.

Jericho Skye, a 26-year-old man who served in the US military police, was relieved to be at a base in Kiev, far from the attack in the west, especially because he was still waiting for weapons. He remains hopeful that the weapons will be distributed soon and believes that Ukrainians are doing the best they can in a tough situation.