Minimal training and years waiting for combatant status: the problems faced by foreign volunteers in Ukraine's armed forces
In September 2026, the UN Working Group on Mercenaries will present a report on the recruitment of Colombian nationals into armed formations in various countries, including Ukraine. Researchers interviewed around a thousand veterans of the Russia-Ukraine war and members of their families for the study.
Ukrainska Pravda sources in diplomatic circles say the report may contain criticism of the conditions in which foreign volunteer soldiers serve in Ukraine. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told UP the ministry is aware that the report is in preparation and has already asked the Working Group's secretariat to include comments from the Ukrainian side. The ministry has also invited UN experts to visit Ukraine to examine the circumstances of all the cases concerned.
The report may highlight failures to provide the families of foreign nationals killed in action with the payments they are entitled to, as well as the difficulties service members face in obtaining confirmation of their official status as combatants. Veteran and journalist Lera Burlakova, who works with foreign volunteer soldiers, says many of them leave Ukraine because of the bureaucracy within the Ukrainian military and the state in general.
"We are losing some of the most highly motivated fighters over utterly ridiculous things that are often impossible to understand," Burlakova says.
Ukrainska Pravda spoke to foreign volunteer soldiers, human rights advocates and military law experts to find out how Ukraine is fulfilling its commitments to those who came to fight for this country.
"I only fired seven rounds during training"
"Gator" is from Florida and is a US citizen. After college, he worked as an investigative journalist and as a ghostwriter. He has close connections to Ukraine and knows quite a few Ukrainians – and his best friend was from Donetsk, so for Gator, when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2014, it was personal.
"Obviously this is a right-and-wrong situation," he says. "It's a larger country with genocidal imperialist ambitions invading their neighbour and murdering civilians. There's no ambiguity about it – it's just very clear [unlike other wars].
I wanted to be one of the people who volunteered for this, and having close personal connections here… I couldn't know all of that stuff and just watch it and not do anything," Gator explains.
Gator knew some soldiers in the Azov Regiment and travelled to join them in early 2023. But once in Ukraine, he discovered that the soldiers were away on a mission and he was told they wouldn't be back for eight weeks. Gator recalls that, ironically, at the time he thought the war would soon be over, so eight weeks seemed a long time. And so he ended up joining the International Legion.
Gator is critical of the Legion's basic military training. He says he fired only seven rounds between February and May 2023. He already knew how to handle small arms, and fellow soldiers with combat experience helped him learn to use other types of weapons.
"We were supposed to be training because we were meant to deploy very soon – and this went on for months. But all of the things that we needed to train, like equipment and ammunition – we never saw any of that," Gator says.
Some of the foreign volunteer soldiers who had met in the Legion later formed an assault unit called the Chosen Company. They agreed on a hierarchy among themselves and transferred to the 59th Brigade, which, Gator says, had promised them greater operational autonomy. After a month of training with the brigade, they began carrying out missions on the Avdiivka front.
In early 2024, the company of foreign volunteers left the brigade. Gator submitted his discharge request from a military hospital after being wounded near Pervomaiske. He spent two years undergoing rehabilitation and is now in the process of rejoining the Ukrainian defence forces.
Gator says he never received the full set of paperwork from his previous brigade, and this has complicated his return to service. One of the documents he is missing is his combatant status (UBD) certificate. He says fellow soldiers of his have had the same problem.
Off the record, Gator showed UP a list of the documents that Chosen Company soldiers have or have not received. Some have not received a single document confirming their service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"It's just an incredibly stupid lottery," says Burlakova. "For example, an American I was helping went through basic military training in a group of 40 foreign nationals. Three received military IDs, and all the others got nothing. And some of those people have since been killed in action without ever receiving military IDs. Their families aren't receiving payments. The status of foreign nationals in the military is often uncertain: many of them don't have the documents they need to officially confirm their service."
Gator tells UP that some Chosen Company soldiers were asked by staff officers to pay UAH 25,000 (about US$560) each as a purported "service fee" for processing their paperwork. Gator paid twice, because he was told that his documents had been "lost" the first time.
"We paid for the documents, and I didn't even know that wasn't normal until I spoke to my new brigade. I told them I didn't have anything even though I'd paid twice, and they were like, 'What do you mean? What fee?' Then I found out I wasn't supposed to be charged for it at all in the first place, let alone charged for it twice and then never get it," he says.
UP is unable to independently verify all the circumstances surrounding these payments, but Gator has provided the editorial team with the names of the people who he says demanded money, as well as a list of documents held by Chosen Company fighters. He says they have been trying for several years to contact the brigade through the official channels, but no one has dealt with their enquiries.
When UP passed this on to the 59th Brigade, the unit's press service said it had received enquiries from the Chosen Company. But according to the brigade's communications team, most of these concerned the presentation of awards, not documents.
The brigade has had a change of commander since the Chosen Company left and a new team has been formed. The brigade therefore says it was actually from UP that it first learned about the extent of the problems involving the company.
The command of the 59th Brigade said: "In our brigade we operate on the principle that all service members should be treated equally, regardless of citizenship. Within the framework of current legislation, we will provide all the materials and documents that the military unit is able to provide.
This is the first time we have heard that payments may have been demanded for processing documents. We will be looking into this. If the allegations are confirmed and signs of criminal activity are established, we will pass the materials on to the State Bureau of Investigation or other relevant pre-trial investigation authorities."
Ukrainska Pravda will continue to monitor the situation as it develops.
Facing imprisonment at home for serving in Ukraine's defence forces
Martin is a South African citizen who was born into a white family during apartheid. His stepfather fought in a local armed conflict. The Soviet Union's interference in South Africa's internal affairs contributed to his family's negative attitude towards Russians.
Martin says he grew up reading books about World War II and the Eastern Front and used to imagine himself in those conditions. His first attempt to join the military was in 1999: he joined the French Foreign Legion, but he terminated his contract very quickly because there were so many Russians serving alongside him.
On returning home from France, Martin went into business, working in real estate, mining and exports, and was involved with a private crime intelligence agency. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he decided to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For him, this was an irreversible decision.
Martin says he could face criminal prosecution in South Africa for joining a foreign military. South African law prohibits citizens from providing military assistance to foreign governments or serving in foreign armed forces without government authorisation. Violations can be punishable by a fine or imprisonment.
Martin recalls how he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine: "When the opportunity came up to fight against Russia, I specifically wanted to come here to challenge myself as well as support Ukraine, and my idea was to fight in winter.
I didn't know anybody in Ukraine at all. I went to the Ukrainian consulate and asked them the procedures for joining. They shared a link with me to the International Legion. I contacted them by that link and went through the application process."
Martin initially served in the International Legion and later transferred to the 42nd Brigade. In total, he served as an assault soldier in Ukraine's defence forces for 11 months – one month short of the period required to obtain a permanent residence permit in Ukraine. He left the military due to physical and mental exhaustion.
Martin wants to stay in Ukraine, as he faces a potential prison sentence back home. He has found a temporary way to remain in Ukraine legally: he has started a business in Ukraine and plans to apply for an entrepreneur visa. To get one, he will have to leave the country and apply for a permit from abroad.
Nevertheless, Martin hopes that a mechanism will be created for people who have fought for Ukraine so that he can obtain a residence permit on the basis of his military service.
Belarusian volunteers Aliaksei Lazarau and Veranika Yanovich faced a similar situation. They were under temporary protection in Ukraine, as they too faced imprisonment in their home country.
Aliaksei Lazarau was killed in action on the Zaporizhzhia front on 26 January 2026. According to his commander, who goes by the alias Balu, the Ukrainian state did not even pay Lazarau's final salary to his wife because she is a citizen of a sanctioned country.
It is worth noting, however, that the migration policy towards foreign nationals who have fought in defence of Ukraine has softened. Lawyers from Pryncyp, a human rights centre for military personnel, point out that recent legislative changes have reduced the period of service under martial law that is required to obtain an immigration permit from three years to one.
This is also confirmed by Mariia (name changed at her request), the wife of a serviceman in the Freedom of Russia Legion. Her husband came to Ukraine when the war began in 2014, and some time later he fought as a volunteer in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) . After the full-scale invasion he joined the Legion, in part because of his Russian citizenship. Mariia says her husband was directly involved in the operations in Russia's Kursk Oblast. He recently became a Ukrainian citizen.
"Overall, I don't want to say that everything is fine, because there's obviously room for improvement," Mariia says. "We did a lot of work on his documents. Meanwhile, we've initiated changes to have certain bureaucratic processes simplified. There really were a lot of different issues involved.
I understand that it was a lot more difficult at the beginning of the war. Now things have started moving, at least as far as my husband and his brothers-in-arms are concerned."
"They remind me of the ATO volunteers"
Veteran and journalist Lera Burlakova has drawn attention to the problems faced by foreign volunteers because her own experience of serving in the ATO made her empathise with them.
"I understand why these people came here. They really remind me of the volunteers of 2014, and that's why I care deeply about what happens to them. These are people who didn't have to be here, because they owe Ukraine nothing. And they often return home disappointed because of the way our state has treated them. I would really like to see that fixed," Burlakova says.
She says the problem is the lack of transparent communication between Ukrainian institutions and volunteers. Ihor Kosiak, an expert at Pryncyp, shares this view. He says the most comprehensive information on serving in the Ukrainian defence forces is available at Pryncyp's own Legal Navigator for foreign nationals. Ukrainian state institutions have yet to offer foreign volunteers anything similar.
Statistics from the Office of the Military Ombudsman indicate that the problem is systemic. Between 27 January and 1 August 2026, the Office registered more than 300 complaints from foreign nationals. The most frequently voiced complaints were about the lack of documents confirming their military service or combatant status, as well as failure to provide medical care or proper supplies.
A significant proportion of the complaints were also about protecting the rights of family members of foreign volunteers who were missing, killed in action or dead. Families would receive no official notification about what had happened to their loved ones, and they would run into problems when they tried to obtain the documents they needed to receive the payments they were entitled to.
Burlakova adds that once the Ukrainian military began to go digital, it became even harder for foreign volunteers to obtain documents and official status. Foreign nationals who do not have residence permits are invisible to "the state in a smartphone". Without the Diia app, they cannot use the Army+ and Reserve+ services. Moreover, the transition to digital systems has put an end to the issuance of paper military IDs. As a result, a foreign national may have no documents proving that they are a service member.
Foreign nationals are now issued certificates confirming their place of service, but Burlakova says that in many cases these are not a full substitute for a military ID or Army+. She adds that the situation is better in units that work centrally with the migration service and go through the paperwork process together with the service member.
"For example, the patronage service of the 3rd Army Corps practically takes foreign nationals by the hand and works with them to prove that those pieces of paper [certificates – ed.] actually mean something. A service member who doesn't have, say, their mum here to help them simply can't do it on their own.
When people see all this, they just think they've fallen into some kind of trap and that someone is trying to, excuse my language, f**k them over," Burlakova says.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi says the situation is not yet critical at the international level, but that Russian propagandists seize on every blunder Ukraine makes in its treatment of foreign volunteers to exploit it for their own purposes.
"Russia is trying to manipulate the issue of foreign volunteers to create a supposed 'mirror image' of its own actions, particularly in Africa, Latin America and Asia," Tykhyi says. "In previous years a number of foreign countries, especially in Africa, have been rocked by scandals caused by Russia's illegal campaigns to lure foreign nationals into the ranks of its occupation forces.
In defending itself against these accusations, Russian propaganda relies primarily on the argument that 'Ukraine does the same.' We can clearly see this trend and are countering these attempts."
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The problems faced by foreign volunteers are gradually becoming visible to the Ukrainian state. Deputy Defence Minister Liubov Halan, who is responsible for human resources policy at the Ministry of Defence, has named it as one of her priorities in her new role. Officially, her remit includes support for service members at every stage of their military service.
Changes are already happening. Since May 2026, foreign nationals serving in the defence forces have been able to obtain temporary residence permits for the duration of their contracts plus a further six months after they end. And now their legal status in Ukraine will be confirmed by more than just a military ID. This should make it easier for foreign service members to access services on Diia, Army+ and Reserve+.
In addition, in July 2026 the government launched a comprehensive support mechanism for foreign volunteers covering the entire process from their arrival in Ukraine to their formal enlistment.
But the new rules won't automatically solve the problems faced by those who served in the past and have yet to receive military documents, confirmation of their injuries, or payments for the families of those killed in action.
It is clear that Ukraine does not engage in the deceptive recruitment of foreign citizens or conceal them outside its own Armed Forces. But if the state formally accepts someone for military service, it must fulfil its obligations to them. Otherwise, stories about the "Kyiv scam" will not only become a bureaucratic problem at home, but will also affect Ukraine's reputation internationally.
Sofiia Cheliak
Translated by Myroslava Zavadska
Edited by Teresa Pearce