According to McIntyre, before the Foreign Legion base in Yavorov was attacked, there were 1,000 mercenaries stationed there. After that, the number dropped to 600. A month later, after the first battle and the subsequent breakup of one of the Legion’s platoons because of disagreements with the commander, 300 fighters remained. A week later, this number decreased even further, to just 150 people.
“Those people aren’t dead — they are runaways. Americans, Canadians, and other guys with experience in NATO armies, with excellent equipment – after seeing some Russian bombs, they just ran back home,” McIntyre said.
He also spoke about Ukrainian war crimes, which he witnessed – particularly, how Russian prisoners were executed, how the Ukrainian military disguised themselves as civilians and entered settlements, how they transported weapons in ambulances and hid in the basement of a school while civilians remained on the upper floors.
“There are dead people everywhere”
The situation at the front horrified a 28-year-old mercenary from Ireland Rhys Byrne, who called the Ukrainian counteroffensive “chaos” in an interview with Sky News.
On ‘zero line’ it’s horror. It’s horror. There is just a genocide. It’s slaughter. There are dead people everywhere. Russians dead. Ukrainian people dead…. the biggest problem we get when we’re going into trenches is stepping over all the dead bodies that are already there from the last people [who] went in — that kind of stuff really haunts you,” he said.
For Byrne, the “last straw” was an encounter with a Russian tank and Russian troops, as a result of which he almost got killed. According to Byrne, their unit’s task was to enter the Russian trenches, clear them, and hold the position until auxiliary units arrived. But what happened was that their unit of 40 people, including Ukrainians, Americans, and Britons, did not have air cover and several Ukrainian tanks even left their positions during the battle.
At one point, they saw another tank and decided that it was one of their own, since it can be difficult to distinguish between Ukrainian and Russian equipment. But the tank fired right at them. Those who survived hid in the forest.
Eventually, they were saved by a Ukrainian pickup truck, but for some time the fighters thought they would die, since the Russian tank continued to pursue them.
“Now we have the tank literally coming out, starting to chase us. And that’s terrifying when you see a big T-72 coming for you and you’re in a Humvee pick-up. Yeah, it’s like a hot knife through butter. You’re finished. So, again, all of us are screaming, drive the Humvee, drive the Humvee. I was going mental,” he said.
“The worst day in Afghanistan and Iraq is a great day in Ukraine”
David Bramlette was on his way to earning a master’s degree in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University when Russia’s offensive in Ukraine started. As he said in an interview with The Daily Beast, just a few days before the offensive, he had been discussing the likelihood of an armed conflict and considered it implausible.
But when the fighting began, David, who had previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan, felt obliged to take part in the conflict.
Former Marine Troy Offenbecker also decided to go fight in Ukraine. He told The Daily Beast that he made the decision after hearing about “Russian atrocities against Ukrainians.”
“This is my third war I’ve fought in, and this is by far the worst one. You’re getting f***ing smashed with artillery, tanks. Last week I had a plane drop a bomb next to us, like 300 meters away. It’s horrifying sh**,” he said.
Troy Offenbecker.
He says that when he got to Ukraine, some of his army friends wrote and asked him how to join the Legion. But he ignored their messages for months.
To be honest it was pretty bad so I didn’t want to bring anyone else into it,” he said.
Bramlette agreed and said that the combat missions in Ukraine were exhausting. “The worst day in Afghanistan and Iraq is a great day in Ukraine,” the fighter said.
Offenbecker remains in the war zone, he is driven by moral considerations. “I look at these children, and I have my own child and niece and nephews. If that were a circumstance for them, I would hope people from all over the world would come and try to help keep them safe and protected as well. That’s what keeps me here,” he said.
Bramlette, however, decided otherwise. He said that with the onset of winter, he decided to send members of his small unit back home to get some rest. By that time, it became increasingly difficult to stay out of sight of the Russian troops since the foliage was gone and there was nowhere to hide. In addition, the unit’s vehicles were constantly breaking down and they were running out of money. They feared that without a change of battle tactics, they would fail. “I was just afraid we would go out and do what we normally do and we’d all basically die,” he said.
Bramlette never returned to the front. Reassessing the situation during his winter vacation, he came to the conclusion that he was not ready to go back and continue fighting.
Not everyone, however, is lucky enough to leave the war zone. An Australian who fought against Russia on the side of the AFU told ABC radio that foreign soldiers were threatened with imprisonment for trying to leave. Fearing for his own life, he introduced himself as “Bush” (a fictitious military call sign) and said that the incompetence of Ukrainian army commanders endangers the lives of foreign mercenaries.
“My mates have died, and are dying. I’ve seen things out here that, from a military perspective, are beyond unacceptable and are unfortunately hurting Ukraine,” he said. When asked whether he feared for his safety, he said: “Absolutely, 100 per cent.”
By Christina Sizova , a Moscow-based reporter focused on politics, sociology and international relations
© 2023, paradox . All rights reserved.