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January 19, 2024On both sides of the front line in Ukraine, former soldiers of the French Foreign Legion, an elite unit of the French army primarily composed of foreigners, are reportedly engaged in the conflict.
This information reported by the British newspaper Times.
According to the publication, at the time of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, there were 710 Ukrainians and 450 Russians serving in the Legion. Many of them, presumably, joined the war despite being urged to remain loyal to their unit. Service promised Legionnaires French citizenship and a €30,000 bonus at the end of their contract.
However, many Legionnaires terminated their agreements and left, and some even deserted to participate in the Russo-Ukrainian war. The Times tells the story of a former Legionnaire named Frank, who managed to enter Ukraine without documents by performing the Legion’s march to a border guard.
Currently, Frank serves under contract in a special unit that is part of the Ukrainian International Legion. Since 2022, Frank has fought near Soledar, Bakhmut, Severodonetsk, and in the Zaporizhzhia region.
“I have met many fighting Legionnaires here. These are guys like me who completed their service in the Legion, and guys who deserted to fight here,” Frank explains.
According to him, there are also former comrades on the side of the Russian Federation.
“They were my brothers, but now, if I saw them face to face, I would kill them, or they would kill me. The life we once led in the Legion is vastly different from our lives today. I respect them and their desire to kill me. That’s normal. I want to kill them too,” says Frank.
The Times suggests that communication channels may still exist among former Legionnaires. In January 2023, the still-living Yevgeny Prigozhin reported that his “colleagues from the French Foreign Legion” had approached the “Wagner Group” with a request to find Yevgeny Kulik, who fought on the side of Ukraine. Later, the Wagner Group’s curator published a video in which a French-speaking soldier places the flag of the Foreign Legion on the identified body of a deceased individual.