India is among the countries from which volunteers have joined the International Legion, Ukraine’s volunteer military force, and are currently engaged in combat, according to a Ukrainian media report on Tuesday.
Three days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for foreign volunteers to join the International Legion in view of the need for forces to counter the offensive. Ukraine’s defence ministry said on February 28 that it had received “several thousand” applications from foreign nationals.
“First foreigners have already joined International Legion, Ukraine’s volunteer military force, and are fighting outside of Kyiv,” The Kyiv Independent tweeted, citing Ukrainian Ground Forces.
“According to the Ukrainian Ground Forces, the volunteers came from the US, the UK, Sweden, Lithuania, Mexico, and India,” the tweet added, without giving details.
Media reports claimed that Sainikhesh Ravichandran, a 21-year-old from Thudaliyur in Coimbatore, has joined a paramilitary unit of volunteers in Ukraine. He had enrolled for a course in aerospace engineering at Kharkiv Aviation Institute, a leading aerospace university located in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which has been the target of intense Russian shelling in recent days.
