On February 27, three days after the Russian-Ukraine war began, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged volunteers all over the world to come to Ukraine and help fight. Perhaps for the potential of having a better life in Ukraine, the president’s words were heard loud and clear by a 27-year-old Nigerian named Ottah Abraham. He tweeted, “I want to join them.”
Abraham says that he’s seeking a better life. He either has a lot of optimism that Ukraine has a chance to stymie the Russians, or is pessimistic about ever having a better life in Nigeria. But the result is that he’s ready for war.
“We know that it’s war, it’s not child’s play,” Abraham tells BBC. “But being a soldier in Ukraine would be better than being here. I’ll probably be allowed to stay if the war ends, plus I’ll be a hero and fight an undeniable enemy.”
Similarly, a Kenyan student in Nairobi, Kimanzi Kashon echoed similar sentiments as Abraham. “If Ukraine decides to pay me a very good amount of money, which I know I cannot earn here, I will definitely go there to fight,” Kashon says.
Despite Zelenskyy’s behest, and besides some volunteer’s enthusiasm, fighting another country’s war is not something that has been encouraged by many countries around the world. But Zelenskyy nevertheless has pleaded for help.
“All citizens of the world, friends of Ukraine, peace and democracy, anyone who wants to join the defense of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals,” Zelenskyy says, calling for the creation of an international legion.
Additionally, Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, also echoed the same call. “Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries,” he tweeted. “Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ukraine went as far launching a website with applications for volunteers to enter. But this isn’t really sitting well with many countries across the world, including the U.S. and Canada, in which the law bans its citizens from participating in military action against a country that they are not in war with.
Additionally, European countries have similar laws. Germany has warned its citizens from joining the war, stating that it violates international law and threatening those who did with charges upon their return.
And although Africans are joining the war, its nations are also clearly against it. Nigeria’s spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francisca Omayuli, says that Nigeria does not allow its nationals to volunteer as mercenaries. Franscisca said in a statement that “Nigeria discourages the use of mercenaries anywhere in the world and will not tolerate the recruitment.”
Algeria has also strongly condemned the Ukrainian government’s recruitment of its citizens. Moreover, Senegal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said that he was amazed that the Ukrainian embassy in its capital, Dakar, was urging the Senegalese to go and aid Ukraine.
The Facebook post was deleted but still in a statement, the Senegalese government criticized the act and warned its citizens recruiting mercenaries of foreign fighters inside Senegal is illegal.
Despite threats, Ukrainian authorities have claimed that some 20,000 people from 52 countries have applied to join the legion. And this estimated number doesn’t include volunteers that have crossed the border into Ukraine without following the official procedure.
While Ukraine is claiming 20,000 volunteers on its side of the battlefield, Russia is also claiming that more than 16,000 people have offered their services to help, volunteers mostly from the Middle East. And President Vladimir Putin has allowed them to join. But Putin has criticized the deployment of mercenaries (paid fighters) and Western support in Ukraine, saying it is against all the norms of international law.
