Foreign volunteers against Ukrainian neo-Nazism
International soldiers of the Donbass militia volunteered to fight Ukrainian neo-Nazism. They’re from Mexico, Columbia, the USA, Serbia, and all over the globe. Locals treat them as heroes. Europe and the USA consider them criminals and mercenaries. If they return home, decades of prison could await them. But they don’t regret it – Donbass has become their home.
‘If I return to Italy, they will immediately arrest me. I won’t even be allowed to come home. I will be arrested and tried as a mercenary who came here for money. But it’s not about the money; it’s about the ideas of my ideas,’ says codename Spartacus, an Italian volunteer for the Donbass militia. He arrived in Donbass in 2014, barely speaking Russian. Codename Spartacus spent years on the frontline protecting Donbass people from Ukrainian nationalist troops. Today he and his comrades became part of the special operation.
Unlike international military instructors and mercenaries in the Ukrainian army, foreign volunteers of the Donbass militia have strong motivation. They confront neo-Nazism as their ancestors did. What they do and how they feel about what they see – in our Foreign Fighters of Donbass documentary.