Ukraine allows foreigners to join its army, work with its intelligence

• 

On Thursday, lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko said that the Ukrainian parliament has passed a law that allows foreigners to serve in the Ukrainian army and work in Ukrainian intelligence.

On his Telegram channel, Goncharenko said that "[The parliament] adopted a law that allows foreigners to work in intelligence, and serve in the Ukrainian armed forces from three to five years."

The Ukrainian President had said in early March that "anyone who wants to join the defense of Ukraine, Europe, and the world" should "come and fight side by side with Ukrainians" against the Russian military. As the Ukrainian armed forces are currently in the process of setting up a “foreign legion unit” for international volunteers.

By March, around 20,000 international volunteers have traveled to fight Russia in Ukraine, mostly coming from European countries, according to a Ukrainian top official on Sunday.

Since the start of the military operation, Zelensky invited foreigners - including Israelis - to fight alongside the Ukrainian army against Russia. 

The volunteers that applied were able to through Ukrainian embassies in their countries. European countries had mixed feelings about sending nations - while Denmark has given the green light, British foreign secretary Liz Truss authorized the opportunity but was contradicted by the head of the armed forces Admiral Tony Radakin, who said it was "unlawful and unhelpful" for the British to fight Russia in Ukraine. 

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, responding to calls from the people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk for help in countering the aggression of Ukrainian forces, which has been ongoing since 2014.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger.

A couple of days before launching the operation, Putin had recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics after weeks of escalating shelling, mortar, sniper, and sabotage attacks by Ukrainian armed forces and ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in the Donbass region.

Russia had for months been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened simultaneously with an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.