Foreign Fighters in Ukraine: What Are Their Stories? - with Colin Freeman

About this episode

This episode explores the stories and motivations of foreign fighters who have joined the Ukrainian defense against the Russian invasion.

Although Russia claims to be waging a war against the so-called West, no other country has officially deployed its military to fight alongside Ukraine. Instead, thousands of individuals from across the globe have made the personal choice to join the Ukrainian defense. Who are these foreign volunteers risking their lives to fight the Russian invasion? What motivates them? What challenges do they face, both on the front lines and back home? How can international military cooperation be improved? You are listening to the Explaining Ukraine podcast. *** Explaining Ukraine is a podcast by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet run by Internews Ukraine. Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, chief editor of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine. Guest: Colin Freeman, freelance foreign affairs reporter for the Daily Telegraph. Colin has reported widely on British fighters in Ukraine. *** Listen on various platforms: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine UkraineWorld: https://ukraineworld.org/en *** SUPPORT: You can support our work on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld Your help is crucial, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding. You can also contribute to our…

People in this episode

Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko

Guest: Colin Freeman

Topics covered

• foreign fighters
• Ukrainian defense
• Russian invasion
• military cooperation
• volunteer motivations

Keywords

• foreign fighters
• Ukraine
• Russian invasion
• military cooperation
• volunteers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UkraineWorld, Internews Ukraine, Daily Telegraph

More episodes of Explaining Ukraine

• Greece, Ukraine, Communism, War, Europe - with Christos Chomenidis · June 10, 2026 · 41 min
• Mariupol: Inside Russia’s Massive War Crime - with James Verini · May 21, 2026 · 50 min
• How Russians Are Erasing Life in Ukraine’s South - with Zarina Zabrisky · May 13, 2026 · 52 min
• Why Europe must fix its defence now - with Moritz Schularick · May 7, 2026 · 44 min
• How Russia can be defeated - with Lesia Ogryzko · April 29, 2026 · 43 min
• Odesa in love and war - with Julian Evans · April 23, 2026 · 42 min