Montuno
...como el Son...
Spaniards, Venezuelans and Americans: crossing half the world to defend Ukraine.
ARA talks to foreign volunteers fighting on the front line against Russia:
Kiev's outskirts are a "mousetrap." "They launch four missiles at us every minute," explains Wahari Urbina, a Venezuelan/Spaniard fighting with Ukraine. Wahari is usually in a hole in the ground, next to Carlos (not his real name), a Hispanic U.S. Marine. A trench less than a kilometer from Russian troops. It is forest whitewashed by snow and scorched by enemy fire. They do everything there, eat -a pot on the fire- and sleep -sometimes in the same hole-. It is the game of cat and mouse. "The Russians advance through the urban areas because they know we don't want to harm civilians," Wahari says. At the moment, he hasn't had a Russian soldier close enough to shoot him and know he's shot him down. Mind you, he doesn't know the casualties caused by everything he shoots. They respond "with fire when there is fire": "It is the Russians who decide to attack". They explain that it is freezing cold and that they are lucky for the food that the neighbors bring them. But they always answer the same thing: "We are trained for that".
They are fighting a war that is not theirs, but they have their reasons for doing so. Wahari's is to return to Venezuela. He arrived in Spain three years ago. He was a marine guard in the Venezuelan army, but he had problems - he can't explain them - and had to flee. So did his six-year-old daughter and his wife. "I have lived through a migration and I fight so that the same thing doesn't happen to Ukrainians." He also fights for democracy to "win in Ukraine" and one day also "return" to his country. "So that my daughter can live." He went to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid and after a short while he had already been put in a car that took him to the border. There was also Carlos, who came from Florida even though he is of Colombian origin. He is 23 years old and has just finished his contract with the U.S. Marines.
In Lviv there is a recruiting center. There are "all kinds of people from all over the world. There they ask you what you can contribute and you sign a contract that obliges you to stay until the end of the war. "Having three children, I couldn't risk a three-year war," says Jaime (not his real name), who traveled from Spain to Lviv thanks to the embassy and with the aim of enlisting even though he has no military experience. He only wanted to spend six months at the front and come back, but the contract did not guarantee his return. So he decided not to go beyond Lviv.
Jaime's surprise also came when he did not see anywhere the figure of 3,000 euros that, according to some media, they were paid for going to war. Wahari and Carlos have not seen a penny either. And look, once the army knew they were military experts, they were sent to do "specialized missions". Not just anywhere: to Kiev. There they have signed a contract that does not bind them temporarily.
Francisco Floro's goal was to sign this contract. He is Spanish and also contacted the Ukrainian embassy. He has made the trip on his own, leaving Barcelona by plane. At the border he met a French friend. "I made the decision to be with him," he explains, and this has led to an abrupt change of plans: instead of enlisting in Lviv they took a train to Kiev and are now with the "Georgians": "A part of the army where there are also militiamen." In a few days they will go to the front. He, in fact, already has shared experiences with militiamen, since he has been in Syrian Kurdistan fighting alongside the Yazidis, against the Islamic State. Once he arrives at the front he will fight alongside Wahari and Carlos. He plans to write a book.
Francisco explains that there are two ways to go to fight: the embassy, "slower but safer", and joining a militia. One group that makes no secret of its intention to recruit new members is the Azov battalion, which is part of the National Guard. With a neo-Nazi presence, their calls to enlist reach even Spanish Telegram groups where Floro himself was. Also in the group was Jonathan (not his real name), who had opted for the embassy route, but had many legal doubts. Such is Ukraine's insistence, that even a diplomat made a video call to him to tell him that everything was legal. But is it? The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense do not have a clear answer and several criminalists consulted by ARA do not see it as criminal. The Ukrainian diplomat who called him, also consulted by this newspaper, did not want to make any assessment.
Armed to the teeth:
The first thing Wahari and Carlos say when they pick up the phone is that Kiev is not occupied by the Russians and that the city is "armored". "It's fortified and full of weapons." They have AT-4 (a Swedish anti-tank weapon), Javelin (a British portable missile), snipers and the submachine guns they always carry: Kalashnikov AK-47 and AK-74 from Ukrainian military, all of Soviet origin. They are only missing more tanks. They have been surprised by the age of the Russians, since many "are 18 years old and are very afraid." "The Russians have lost many men," says Wahari, who adds that many civilians have also lost their lives. They narrate that among the ranks optimism reigns. "We will win this war 100 percent," says Wahari.
But, as in any war, they have experienced live deaths and "many bullet wounds". Still, they emphasize the resilience of the Ukrainian soldiers: "There are 50-year-old [soldiers] who fight like a 20-year-old." In a few hours they will be back in front of the front and warn that they will not be able to answer any messages. The Russians detect them by their cell phones and, on the last day, a missile fell very close to them precisely for this reason: someone had left their smartphone connected to the internet.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/es.ara....01066.amp.html
ARA talks to foreign volunteers fighting on the front line against Russia:
Kiev's outskirts are a "mousetrap." "They launch four missiles at us every minute," explains Wahari Urbina, a Venezuelan/Spaniard fighting with Ukraine. Wahari is usually in a hole in the ground, next to Carlos (not his real name), a Hispanic U.S. Marine. A trench less than a kilometer from Russian troops. It is forest whitewashed by snow and scorched by enemy fire. They do everything there, eat -a pot on the fire- and sleep -sometimes in the same hole-. It is the game of cat and mouse. "The Russians advance through the urban areas because they know we don't want to harm civilians," Wahari says. At the moment, he hasn't had a Russian soldier close enough to shoot him and know he's shot him down. Mind you, he doesn't know the casualties caused by everything he shoots. They respond "with fire when there is fire": "It is the Russians who decide to attack". They explain that it is freezing cold and that they are lucky for the food that the neighbors bring them. But they always answer the same thing: "We are trained for that".
They are fighting a war that is not theirs, but they have their reasons for doing so. Wahari's is to return to Venezuela. He arrived in Spain three years ago. He was a marine guard in the Venezuelan army, but he had problems - he can't explain them - and had to flee. So did his six-year-old daughter and his wife. "I have lived through a migration and I fight so that the same thing doesn't happen to Ukrainians." He also fights for democracy to "win in Ukraine" and one day also "return" to his country. "So that my daughter can live." He went to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid and after a short while he had already been put in a car that took him to the border. There was also Carlos, who came from Florida even though he is of Colombian origin. He is 23 years old and has just finished his contract with the U.S. Marines.
In Lviv there is a recruiting center. There are "all kinds of people from all over the world. There they ask you what you can contribute and you sign a contract that obliges you to stay until the end of the war. "Having three children, I couldn't risk a three-year war," says Jaime (not his real name), who traveled from Spain to Lviv thanks to the embassy and with the aim of enlisting even though he has no military experience. He only wanted to spend six months at the front and come back, but the contract did not guarantee his return. So he decided not to go beyond Lviv.
Jaime's surprise also came when he did not see anywhere the figure of 3,000 euros that, according to some media, they were paid for going to war. Wahari and Carlos have not seen a penny either. And look, once the army knew they were military experts, they were sent to do "specialized missions". Not just anywhere: to Kiev. There they have signed a contract that does not bind them temporarily.
Francisco Floro's goal was to sign this contract. He is Spanish and also contacted the Ukrainian embassy. He has made the trip on his own, leaving Barcelona by plane. At the border he met a French friend. "I made the decision to be with him," he explains, and this has led to an abrupt change of plans: instead of enlisting in Lviv they took a train to Kiev and are now with the "Georgians": "A part of the army where there are also militiamen." In a few days they will go to the front. He, in fact, already has shared experiences with militiamen, since he has been in Syrian Kurdistan fighting alongside the Yazidis, against the Islamic State. Once he arrives at the front he will fight alongside Wahari and Carlos. He plans to write a book.
Francisco explains that there are two ways to go to fight: the embassy, "slower but safer", and joining a militia. One group that makes no secret of its intention to recruit new members is the Azov battalion, which is part of the National Guard. With a neo-Nazi presence, their calls to enlist reach even Spanish Telegram groups where Floro himself was. Also in the group was Jonathan (not his real name), who had opted for the embassy route, but had many legal doubts. Such is Ukraine's insistence, that even a diplomat made a video call to him to tell him that everything was legal. But is it? The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense do not have a clear answer and several criminalists consulted by ARA do not see it as criminal. The Ukrainian diplomat who called him, also consulted by this newspaper, did not want to make any assessment.
Armed to the teeth:
The first thing Wahari and Carlos say when they pick up the phone is that Kiev is not occupied by the Russians and that the city is "armored". "It's fortified and full of weapons." They have AT-4 (a Swedish anti-tank weapon), Javelin (a British portable missile), snipers and the submachine guns they always carry: Kalashnikov AK-47 and AK-74 from Ukrainian military, all of Soviet origin. They are only missing more tanks. They have been surprised by the age of the Russians, since many "are 18 years old and are very afraid." "The Russians have lost many men," says Wahari, who adds that many civilians have also lost their lives. They narrate that among the ranks optimism reigns. "We will win this war 100 percent," says Wahari.
But, as in any war, they have experienced live deaths and "many bullet wounds". Still, they emphasize the resilience of the Ukrainian soldiers: "There are 50-year-old [soldiers] who fight like a 20-year-old." In a few hours they will be back in front of the front and warn that they will not be able to answer any messages. The Russians detect them by their cell phones and, on the last day, a missile fell very close to them precisely for this reason: someone had left their smartphone connected to the internet.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/es.ara....01066.amp.html
