UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT HAS ALLOWED FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS TO SERVE IN THE UKRAINIAN ARMY

Foreign citizens are to be permitted to become contract soldiers in the Ukrainian army, according to a legal amendments passed by the Ukrainian parliament today - October 6. Foreigners make a significant part of the Ukrainian volunteer military units such as Such as "Azov" regiment, "Donbass", "OUN" battalions, "Right Sector" Volunteer Corps and many others, where several hundreds of Russian and Belorussian comrades are fighting side by side with Ukrainians.

The amendments were approved by 229 votes of the 450-seat parliament. According to the law, stateless people can now also serve in the Ukrainian army as private soldiers and non-commissioned officers.

“Military service carried out by foreigners and stateless people must be contractual. They can occupy any position from private soldier and rating to non-commissioned officer in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other legal military formations,” the bill reads. “Citizens, foreigners and stateless people who perform military service are considered (Ukrainian) servicemen and have the status of a serviceman.” 

Viacheslav Tseluiko, a military expert at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, said the amendments were a step towards legalizing a process that started in Ukraine when the conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out.

“In fact, foreigners now serve in various military groupings, but without Ukrainian citizenship they cannot serve in the official armed forces,” – told Tseluiko.

As remarked in his address Russian "Azovian" with the callsign Yesenin, "all of us want to be the citizens of the country for which we fought after the end of ATO. Get education and job. For it turns out that we have the right to get guns and fight, whereas we have no right to peaceful life."

The amendments open the way to citizens of other countries, some of who have already served or are currently serving in Ukrainian volunteer battalions, to officially join the ranks of the Ukrainian army, but for the same pay and benefits as Ukrainian citizens.

At the same time, the bill passed by parliament also made fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine a crime punishable by a prison term of from three to eight years.

“The recruitment, financing, material support, training and use of mercenaries is (also) punishable by imprisonment for a term of from three to eight years,” the text of the bill reads.

According to the bill, a mercenary is a person who is recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict or take a direct part in hostilities. Such persons are involved in hostilities essentially for private gain, and are promised material compensation or simply better pay than combatants of similar ranks and functions in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Mercenaries are neither nationals of a party to the conflict, nor residents of territory controlled by a party to the conflict, according to the bill. Neither are they members of the armed forces of a party to a conflict.

Source Azov Reconquista