"We risk losing foreign fighters": the 2nd International Legion speaks out about its unit being disbanded

A wave of outrage swept through military and military-adjacent circles in mid-November when it was reported that the international legions within the Ukrainian Ground Forces were to be disbanded. There are four of them within the Ground Forces in total: three combat units and one training unit.

Some military analysts, volunteers and, more rarely, fighters themselves reported in social media posts that powers were being abruptly stripped from battalions which, in addition to conducting combating operations, also specialised in recruiting foreign nationals and working with them, and that their service members were being reassigned to assault units. The volunteers and fighters suggested that this decision may have originated with Valentyn Manko, Commander of the Assault Units Directorate. The reason given was that the assault units need constant replenishment – especially now, amid breakthroughs on the front line.

When Ukrainska Pravda asked Manko whether he was behind the disbandment of the international legions, he did not give a direct answer, merely stating that "commissions and inspections are currently underway" in these units and that "a decision will be made" once the inspections are completed.

The Ground Forces themselves issued an official statement on the matter on 16 November. They framed the story of the legions' abolition roughly like this: the legion format introduced in 2022 has done its job and outgrown its usefulness; the structure of the defence forces and the needs of combat units are changing; therefore, foreign fighters will be deployed "where they are needed most".

"Foreign volunteers who sign contracts with the Armed Forces of Ukraine will have broader opportunities for service, including the right to choose a combat brigade, area and type of deployment based on their training, experience and preferences," the Ground Forces said in the statement.

Ukrainska Pravda has learned that the story of the disbandment of the International Legions began on 30 October, when the units in question received a classified directive from the Ministry of Defence and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi ordering their military units to be abolished by the end of 2025.

A couple of weeks ago, the 2nd International Legion approached our editorial team, wishing to express its position regarding the disbandment of its military unit. A distinctive feature of the 2nd Legion is that it had a mandate from the president and the commander-in-chief to serve as a testing ground for a new tactic combining light infantry and UAVs in combat, with state funding allocated for this purpose. The decision to disband the legion meant that this experiment was never completed.

In this interview, Lieutenant Colonel Andrii Spivak, Deputy Artillery Commander of the 2nd International Legion, explains what has most angered fighters in the 2nd Legion about the decision to dissolve their unit, what is so innovative about their work, and how this could affect the recruitment of foreign nationals into the Ukrainian army.

Disbanding the legions, the unfinished experiment at the 2nd battalion, and the ability to "constantly advance"

Andrii, how and when did you learn that your unit, the 2nd International Legion, was to be disbanded?

I learned about it around three weeks ago. It's public information, and to be honest, it came as a shock to me.

Our International Legion is special – not only because we have foreign fighters and know how to serve alongside them, but also because we are involved in a unique experiment.

Further to a decision of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, we are piloting an innovation. Working with the Ground Forces Training Command, we had developed the concept and a training programme, we'd successfully carried out testing, we were approaching its conclusion, I'd started drawing up a report for the commander-in-chief – and then this happened. How can a project that was initiated by the commander-in-chief himself be shut down before its results are reported?

What was the innovation you were piloting?

We are the only unit in the Armed Forces where changes to light infantry tactics – the bread and butter of the entire army – are being tested out. We are working on the organic integration of drones and infantry operations.

The concept was approved by Ground Forces Commander [Mykhailo] Drapatyi in January 2025. Based on that concept, we developed programmes, spent funds, and engaged the best Ground Forces instructors to train both infantry and UAV crews. In May we began testing this tactic on the front line: initially on the Pokrovsk front, and now on another one that's equally intense.

We are training skilled, professional infantry that will carry out missions after enemy battle formations have been destroyed or seriously damaged. If our innovation were scaled up across all combined-arms brigades and corps of the Ground Forces, it would help change the course of the war.

What makes our approach different from what's set out in the regulations is that UAVs operating at battalion level ensure both preparation and support for infantry actions.

Where do UAVs operate at the moment – corps level, brigade level? Does that make them less accessible to infantry commanders?

Currently, battalion-level UAV units do exist, but they don't have the full range of capabilities [meaning they may operate at shallower depths and perform a limited set of tasks – ed.]. Brigades have greater capabilities.

Whereas in our legion, historically, the UAV component has been particularly strong.

We have roughly 50/50 Ukrainians and foreign nationals. The foreigners tend to be infantry who carry out missions, and the Ukrainians are pilots. I'll explain why.

Our foreign fighters usually have military or police backgrounds, and they came to Ukraine specifically to take part in combat operations. Their motivation may vary, but they are geared towards being active – which is exactly what we need. We train them in our tactics, then we integrate them with the UAV crews. This is how we combine infantry with drones.

Every developed army in the world will fight in exactly this proportion: a minority of infantry and a majority of UAVs. And they're trained and deployed together at all times.

Forgive my persistence – I'm still trying to get my head around how your innovative infantry-UAV tactic works. For instance, there's a Russian position you need to retake near Pokrovsk. How would you do it?

We would never attack a position from just one direction. We would enable the battalion commander to approach it from several directions. We might distract the enemy on one flank, and bring in mechanised units and strike on another. Or we might destroy a key enemy facility on a diversionary flank, forcing them to change their plans and deploy reserves to reinforce that area. While they're doing that, we take advantage of it.

We're a scalpel that causes pain to the enemy. We divert their attention to us while the commander applies the main "punch".

Basically, what we are proposing and piloting enables a mechanised infantry commander to conduct active operations continuously. As a great commander once said, a commander must constantly advance – even in defence.

"Constantly advancing" – Oleksandr Syrskyi would clearly like that…

That's why, I believe, the commander-in-chief personally made two decisions – in January and in March – regarding the training and deployment of our unit.

As far as I know, two of the three international legions have already transitioned into assault units, which will later become part of the assault forces.

What about your legion?

Ours – which is the most comprehensive in terms of capabilities and available assets – is currently in the process of transformation. In the process of being disbanded as a military unit.

Readers will inevitably have questions about the effectiveness of your new tactics. What did the testing period on the Pokrovsk front show?

Several commissions reviewed our actions near Pokrovsk, and all of them concluded that our experiment should continue and our actions were successful.

I'd also like to mention that working with people from other countries requires a slightly different approach. There are language and cultural barriers; tasks need to be explained properly, and we always allocate time to do that.

Recruitment into the legion and bilingual command in combat

If the commander-in-chief's decision to disband your legion remains in force, which assault regiments will your personnel be reassigned to?

I can only go by the publicly available information, so I don't know which units our people will end up in. However, the fact that our unit is being disbanded by the end of this year means that the personnel will most likely be offered positions in the new assault forces.

Are there any foreign nationals in the assault regiments?

I don't know, but what I can say is that the foreigners who came to us came specifically to the Ground Forces and on our terms. They know how we employ infantry. Everyone – both Ukrainians and foreigners – has gone through a selection process. All of our personnel are volunteer fighters.

I often say that our legion is an IT company that went to the front line. Management culture, planning, deployment of forces – we're somewhat different from the rest in everything we do. We have a high proportion of people with higher education and language skills. After leaving the Armed Forces in 1999, I spent more than 20 years working as a programme manager for a well-known international institution where the working languages were English and French. That's very helpful to me now.

I command combat operations in two languages – Ukrainian and English. The duty operations officer next to me speaks Spanish. He isn't an ordinary interpreter – he's a commander who understands tactics and can explain a task to infantrymen in a way they truly understand.

At present, Ukrainska Pravda is aware of the final destination of only one legion – the 1st International Legion. It is being transferred to the 475th Separate Assault Regiment Code 9.2, commanded by Hero of Ukraine Oleksandr "Flint" Nastenko.I

Interestingly, the 475th Regiment does not fall under the Assault Forces Directorate headed by Manko; it's directly subordinate to Hennadii Shapovalov, Commander of the Ground Forces. A high-ranking Ukrainska Pravda source in the 475th Regiment says the transfer process is proceeding fairly smoothly.

How long did you spend training your personnel for deployment at the front using this new tactical format?

Two and a half months.

Was state funding allocated for this?

Yes. There were instructors, logistical support, ammunition and so on at the training centre. The training was fairly intensive, so I believe it would have been a significant amount.

But this doesn't seem logical. So the commander-in-chief and Ground Forces commander gave you the green light to do an experiment based on your legion, allocated funding for it, let you withdraw personnel from the front so they could be trained – two and a half months is a lot – and now that same commander-in-chief is just shutting the project down?

It's the illogicality of it that I find frustrating. I can't rationalise or explain it in any way. I want us to be allowed to complete the experiment – we just need another couple of months, and if the leadership likes the result, we'll carry on. If not, then we can decide something else.

We want to stay within the Ground Forces.

We have our own brand – the 2nd International Legion. We've been building it for almost three years. We have an established cycle, from recruitment to supporting both foreign and Ukrainian service members right through to the end of their service. People come to us because of the brand. Only the legions work with foreign nationals in a systematic way. We have a full complement of experienced personnel with language skills. We get several dozen applications from foreigners every month.

As for Ukrainians, a couple of weeks ago we ran a recruitment campaign by text, and we got around 2,000 applications as a result.

Wow! I didn't think that recruitment method worked anymore.

And most of them had never served before.

How have the foreign nationals in your unit reacted to the news that the legion might be disbanded?

They're shocked and don't understand why this is happening.

"We'd be happy to report our results to Syrskyi"

How did you react to the idea of the assault units being separated and turned into a distinct branch of the armed forces when it first emerged? The president announced these plans in September following the effective performance of assault units on the Dobropillia front.

To be honest, until I heard about us being disbanded and then reassigned, I hadn't given it much thought. I do understand that the defence forces need as broad a range of tools as possible in the hands of commanders at different levels in order to solve tasks.

But what we are piloting and proposing is the opposite of assault forces. The assault forces are a specialised branch designed for specific tasks, whereas we offer solutions for combined-arms units from battalion level upwards. We are for everyone and for large-scale tasks.

You mentioned that a special commission came to the Pokrovsk front to assess your work. Did the commander-in-chief find time to see you? He currently visits the front every week, or even several times a week.

No, unfortunately he didn't. We underwent an official inspection ordered by the commander-in-chief near Pokrovsk while the 2nd Legion was deployed, followed by an internal investigation also initiated by him. Both the inspection and the investigation concluded that there were no complaints against us and that we were fighting effectively.

Both the commander and I would be happy to report our results to the commander-in-chief.

But Andrii, you've been in the Ukrainian army for a long time. Did you try to contact the General Staff, or the commander-in-chief, through unofficial channels or former comrades and explain your position – that a project that resources had been invested in was being shut down?

First, this was officially reported to the commander of the Ground Forces. Second, as far as I know, it should have been reported to the commander-in-chief as well. I don't know what the outcome was.

Do you still hope that this decision can be stopped?

I hope common sense will prevail and we will be allowed to complete the experiment by early 2026. Then our proposal for scaling it up will be considered, and then the final decision will be made. That's the first point.

Secondly, in my view, it is very dangerous to leave the Ground Forces without legions, because this will diminish the very idea of foreign citizens coming to serve in the Ground Forces, and in the long term it could totally destroy it. There will simply be no international specialised units for them.

We should be encouraging foreign nationals to fight for us – this is vitally important. We should be doing everything we can to ensure that they end up in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and not the army of the enemy. And yet what is happening is the exact opposite. This is deeply painful to me personally.

What am I supposed to tell my people?

Olha Kyrylenko, Ukrainska Pravda

Translation:  Myroslava Zavadska

Editing: Teresa Pearce