Russian volunteers join Ukraine’s Siberian Battalion to fight against Putin's troops

KYIV: On the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, a group of some 30 soldiers practise loading their weapons and firing them at targets in the forest. 

Soon, they will be taking aim at Russian positions. 

But these troopers, who are taking part in basic combat training that thousands have similarly undergone before heading to the frontlines, are not from Ukraine. 

They are Russian citizens who oppose President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and have decided to take up arms to fight alongside Ukrainians against their own homeland. 

FIGHTING AGAINST THEIR HOMELAND

These volunteers are part of the Siberian Battalion, a new unit formed last summer and is officially part of Ukraine's armed forces. Its members are mostly from ethnic minorities from Russia’s far east.

A former information technology worker from western Siberia, who goes by the military callsign Holod, said he left Russia when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. 

“I tried to fight it and I tried to convince myself that this is not my war. I don’t care either about Ukraine or Russia (and) I wanted to go away from Russia anyway, so I relocated. But it didn’t work out,” added the Siberian Battalion soldier. 

He said his conscience brought him to Kyiv, after he first moved to Georgia. It is a common route among these soldiers, who first travel to a third country before reaching Ukraine.

Unlike other volunteer units made up of non-Ukrainians, the newly-formed Siberian Battalion is officially part of the Ukrainian military.

The unit has so far recruited about 60 men, who have to undergo stringent background screening and security checks before they can join. This is to exclude the possibility of Russian agents infiltrating the group. 

OPPOSING PUTIN’S REGIME

Many of the unit’s members are indigenous peoples of Siberia who hope to dismantle Moscow’s political grip over their region. 

Those who joined the battalion have left behind their families and friends. 

While it is a hard decision to make, they said they have no choice. For the war to come to an end, these fighters believe that the Putin regime needs to be toppled. 

“Russia needs more partisans. The top priority is to overthrow Putin,” said a Siberian Battalion member.

“Without Putin, there is no war.”

As the conflict approaches its two-year mark in February, Ukraine is hoping to mobilise more troops to fight against a country with a population three times its size.

Ukrainian military officials said they expect several hundred Russians to join their ranks, adding that these soldiers are hoping to someday return to a different homeland from the one they left behind.