The ukrainian president Wolodimir Selenskij has called on foreigners to come to Ukraine and fight against the Russian army. „Everybody that 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.“ he said.
Even though NATO has declared not to involve themselves in the conflict, a debate is evolving about if and how foreign mercenaries are allowed to join the Ukrainian military. The rulers of different countries are trying to find ways in order to justify this. The fact alone that all kinds of bourgeois news agencies are publishing article after article about whether or not it is legal to join armed confrontations in Ukraine is telling.
An „international brigade“ Selenskij wants to muster, reports the SRF. They are using vocabulary that brings historical connotations with it deliberately.
In the 30‘s many antifacists went to spain in order to join the strugle against Franco and the fascists. Many of these heroic fighters were organized under communist leadership even before that and fought in spain in order to defend the republic following the call of the Communist International. They were organized in the international brigades. When this glorious name is being used right now, then it serves to paint the mustering of a band of mercenaries in a positive light. Only right now we are not talking about Spain in the 30‘s and the call to join the fight is not supported by the Soviet Union but by NATO. It‘s not about the struggle against fascism but about the closing of ranks in the front against Russia. The involvement of the „International Legion“ aims at cinically „internationalising“ the conflict. That means its goal is to legitimize the further campaign of NATO against Russia.
When people from Great Britain, Germany and other NATO-members go to the front then inevitably some of these people are going to die there. Putin has also announced that he will not recognize them as prisoners of war.
When all of a sudden Germans, Brits and so on die in this conflict, their home countries can‘t lay back and will „have to“ take a more active approach.
Therefore it is even more telling what forces are set in motion in order to justify foreigners moving to Ukraine in order to actively take part in the war that is being fought there. Liz Truss, the british foreign minister for example said, that she‘s in support of brits that want to go to Ukraine in order to fight. 120 ex-paratroopers are apparently on their way from the United Kingdom already.She says this even though deployments under foreign service are illegal in Britain.
In Latvia for example laws have been changed so people can join the confrontations in Ukraine without punishment.The German interior ministry also promotes that German soldiers are allowed to go to war for Selenskij. They make this assessment even though recruiting for armed conflict in other countries is illegal just as much as fighting as a mercenary is.
When people decide to join the „People‘s Defense Forces“ in Northern Syria and fight under the kurdish PYD, they can be certain that they will be labelled as „terrorists“ and criminalized in their home country. They are being persecuted in a joint effort with Turkey.People who join jihadist militias like the Islamic State can also have their German citizenship stripped from them.
So while these people are being persecuted, the representatives of the German Bourgeoisie are going out of their way in order to justify Bundeswehr-reservists participating in the war in Ukraine. Hundreds of them are already connecting via encrypted chat-groups, the Business-Insider says. „No extremists, please“ says the interior ministry. But if Germans want to fight Russians, go ahead. This cynical view must be denounced just as every other attempt by the German Imperialists to win an advantage from the Russian War of Aggression.
