INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE 2/27/2022,KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday urged foreigners to head to Ukrainian embassies worldwide to sign up for an “international brigade” of volunteers to help fight invading Russian forces. “All foreigners wishing to join the resistance against the Russian occ upiers and protect global security are invited by the Ukrainian leadership to come to our state and join the ranks of the territorial defense forces,” Zelensky said in a statement on the presidential website. “A separate unit is being formed from foreigners — the International Brigade of the territorial defense of Ukraine. This will be a key testimony of your support for our country.” Zelensky insisted that Ukrainians were courageous enough to face Russia alone, but said: “This is not just a Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is the beginning of a war against Europe.” He said anyone interested in joining should get in contact with the military attaché at their nearest Ukrainian embassy.

Governments around the world are joining sanctions and shunning Russia. European governments, including many that previously  favored neutrality or otherwise tread carefully with regard to Russia, are joining the opposition to Moscow, and many are  sending military aid. Some individuals, however, are doing more and are heeding President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s  call to join the fighting: “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.” Ukraine’s foreign minister  tweeted a call for an “international legion” to fight against Russia. Dozens of  Americans, Canadians, and other foreigners are already trying to take up arms, and the U.K. foreign secretary, Liz Truss,  signaled her support for British nationals who would do so. Such individual efforts are understandable, and the motives are at times even heroic — but they are also often a mistake, and foreign governments should not encourage such private warfare. How many volunteers will go to Ukraine is unknown, but the mass recruitment of foreign fighters is hardly new, as  David Malet and others have chronicled. The most recent  mass wave involved jihadis, who went to fight in Afghanistan, Iraq and particularly Syria, among other countries. Indeed, even before the latest round,  the Ukraine conflict, which has waxed and waned since 2014, attracted foreign fighters: some to help Russia and its promise of anti-LGBTQ, anti-left wing, muscular nationalism; others to help defend Ukraine from foreign aggression. These volunteers  included an array of  white supremacist and other right-wing extremists. The war today differs from jihadi conflicts and even the more limited recent civil conflict in Ukraine, but these and other experiences offer some lessons to consider about any future role for foreign fighters. The military record of foreign fighters is mixed. In many cases, they are zealous but untrained and do not come well-armed. They are eager for combat and (in the case of jihadis) martyrdom, but overall add little to the combat power of their fellow fighters, especially in cases, like Afghanistan in the 1980s and Ukraine today, where there is plenty of manpower. Most  end up as cannon fodder. In some instances, however, the fighters themselves come with skills —  one report indicates that American and British special operations forces veterans are preparing to deploy to Ukraine — and this cohort can be far more useful. And in many other instances, foreign fighters become skilled through a brutal Darwinian process once they arrive to fight. The foreign fighters are often more   useful in an insurgency, which Ukraine may become. For guerrilla conflicts, the foreigners’ dedication is vital, and their more limited firepower is less of a disadvantage.  Yet foreigners bring with them many problems in addition to the limited skill of many volunteers. Language difficulties are one issue. Few will speak Ukrainian, and if they are put in a separate unit they may speak dozens of languages or otherwise have difficulty communicating with one another.  For Ukraine, establishing firm command and control of any foreign fighters is necessary —  something the government did after the 2014 influx but which will be harder as Russian attacks made centralized control over forces more difficult. The , was better able to capitalize on Afghans, Pakistanis, and Lebanese Hezbollah members who joined its side in that country’s civil war, making them an important part of the regime’s war effort by ensuring they served under Iranian and Syrian control. If foreign fighters go off on their own, they may fight bravely, but it may backfire in the long-term. Daniel L. Byman, BROOKINGS

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