Speaker 1: As of producing this video, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been going on for around 30 months now. With two and a half years of near-constant warfare, which has largely devolved into attrition tactics and bursts of high-casualty missions, the number of casualties on both sides of the war has reached 1 million people. But it's not only the Russians and Ukrainians that are going to the front and dying. On Ukraine's side, foreign military troops and volunteers have joined the fight in hopes of ending the war with Ukraine's victory. This is the story of one such foreign fighter, a German sniper, doing his best to survive and continue the good fight for Ukraine. We found our sniper team near Liman, a city that was occupied by Russia in May 2022. A counter-offensive in September of that same year forced the Russian army to withdraw from the area in what was one of the more significant victories for the Ukrainians during that year. Regardless, Liman has remained perilously close to the Russian-occupied territory of Ukraine, currently sitting roughly 10 miles away from the fighting. To say the area surrounding Liman has seen better days would be an understatement. On July 8, 2023, the city was shelled by the Russian forces, killing 9 civilians and wounding 13 more. Early in 2024, foreign aid and military equipment, particularly ammunition, arrived in the area, giving the Ukrainian fighters and their allies a brief reprieve from the seemingly endless conflict. With the ammunition, the Ukrainian army looks ready to make moves against Russia and even mount a counter-offensive. Let's first visit the artillery positions. The Ukrainian army's 3rd Border Brigade in Liman is stationed 6 miles away from the actual front, using the new ammunition to counter Russia's ever-evolving battle tactics. The leader of the brigade, Colonel Serhiy Isatchuk, studied and worked in Germany and was previously a diplomat. As he explained, the Russians stopped using armored personnel carriers in the area due to the heavily defended artillery positions of the 3rd Border Brigade. When they did, they were easy targets for the artillery and could be taken out first, decimating the enemy attack before it could even start properly. Thus, Russians switched to a more foot-based tactic, with groups of troops advancing 3 to 5 miles across the front in an attempt to gain leverage for the army. That too hasn't yielded much success, as the Colonel says, we've just got this route too, got that larger groups of enemy soldiers who had gathered and fired against them. In those words, we see the true effect of Russia's ceaseless advance into Ukraine, where infantry troops are pushed into the meat grinder again and again, all in the hopes that Ukraine would run out of precious ammunition to counter the slowly failing Soviet era weaponry. The artillery used by the 3rd Border Brigade is also not much to boast about. The gun was built in 1944 by the Soviet Union to fight Nazi Germany during World War II. The artillery saw limited use on the battlefields of World War II before it was deposited into Ukraine, which was at that point part of the Soviet Union. Now, more than 80 years later, the same gun is being used by the Ukrainian army and German reinforcements with brand new ammunition, arriving straight from Germany. According to our German spokesperson, the soldiers have written their thanks to Germany on the artillery ammunition, followed by a salute to the Ukrainian army, Slava Ukraini, and the date June 22nd, 2024. On that date 83 years ago, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. That same Soviet Union that was responsible for millions of deaths in an attempt to defend and overthrow Nazism has been succeeded by the Russian Federation. And that same country has been leveraging its authority to attack another free country to force it to rejoin what seems to be an attempt to create a new Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian command provided a new report on Russian troops entering a dugout within range. The artillery shell is primed and shot to destroy the enemy position and further the carnage. This is the reality of artillery and tech warfare between Ukraine and Russia. Medium to long range artillery and remote controlled drones have made bulky tanks and personnel carriers practically obsolete. As soon as a vehicle approaches the front, there are multiple ways of taking it down before it can even become a problem. Of course, it's not only the Ukrainians that are using the range advantage. On the other side of the front, Russia has been doing the same thing. After the initial strike by the Soviet era Ukrainian artillery, the enemy position might be compromised, but the shot's trail of destruction is followed by Russian drone scouts in an attempt to triangulate the relatively immobile gun's position. The Ukrainian army quickly surrounds the artillery and nearby battlements with branches to camouflage them and prevent the artillery from being spotted from afar. This forces the Russian drones to survey the area at a much closer range. Despite the technological advancements in drone cameras and maneuverability, the unmanned devices still need to go beyond the front line to capture decent footage. The Ukrainians then take their guns, spread out from the area and start searching. The goal is simple, take down enemy drones before they can report on the artillery position and ruin Ukraine's advantage. As mentioned, it's not only the Ukrainians who have been fighting on the front. A substantial part of the defense forces is made from the so-called Ukrainian International Legion, composed entirely of foreign volunteers. The Legion's beginnings harken back to the Russian invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014, which was widely considered one of the main starting points of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Today the Legion is almost completely integrated into the Ukrainian army proper, with volunteers added to other units in the army. Our German sniper, Otto S. from Bavaria, is a 49-year-old demolition contractor who joined the Legion after the invasion in 2022. Otto has been trained as a sniper in the Bundeswehr, the German National Army. He came to Ukraine and specifically to Obolon, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, which itself was close to the front in 2023, as the Russian army repeatedly tried to push towards the city. He remained there for three months as a volunteer. Otto's assignment as a sniper is to protect the other ground troops in his unit from the enemy infantry or, if possible, take out enemy snipers before they can do the same. Otto also carries a body cam to record his actions and document the extent of Russia's terror as it tries to take Ukraine. While the frontline is largely determined by the extent of military intelligence, technology use, and how much force both sides can bring to bear, it's fighters like Otto who are taking the brunt of the risk. The frontline is a deadly place. According to Otto, most of his time in the field is spent trying not to die from enemy fire. The soldiers listen for grenades being launched, with the pitch of the launcher's whistle giving a clue as to the distance of the shooter. Whether the grenade is close or not, all the soldiers can do is pray that it isn't aimed at them and they live to fight another day. Most firefights last for minutes or hours, but they can feel like days, Otto says. A month ago, his luck nearly ran out. He was in a relatively close-range firefight, with the enemy approaching as close as 150 to 200 feet away from the Ukrainian defenses. Within 10 minutes, Otto was hit by an enemy bullet, which pierced his lung and passed by his spine. I could feel it, Otto says. I felt the blow and I also felt it straight away. When I breathed, my lungs immediately bled. Typically, a gunshot injury to the chest can be fatal. It can take as little as five minutes for a hit artery to cause significant blood loss, which would rapidly reduce the chances of survival. A lung injury, such as the one Otto received, causes what's called a tension pneumothorax, i.e. a collapsed lung. For gunshot wounds, the primary concerns become restoring proper airway control, stabilizing the blood pressure, and retrieving the bullet as fast as possible. The first 10 minutes after being shot can mean the difference between life and death, and this could very well be the case for our German sniper. Otto was taken to a nearby hospital as soon as the fighting died down a bit. Fortunately, the bullet could be removed and didn't leave many lasting injuries. For his role as a sniper, Otto was treated as a war hero and received a visit from the mayor of Kiev. The German sniper kept the extracted bullet as a memento, a harrowing warning that a single shot, whether a well-positioned sniper or a stray bullet, could end his life. Otto also reveals the extent of Russia's flagrant disregard for human life and dignity. The Russian army occasionally bombs hospitals filled with injured soldiers, an act that goes against the Geneva Convention. As a result, the hospitals need to be manned round the clock to expedite evacuations in case of shelling by Russian troops. The nurses keep themselves awake at night by blasting techno music in staff areas. The ongoing fighting keeps the hospital beds perpetually full. As soon as a soldier is discharged, another one takes their place. The never-ending approach of Russian troops keeps both the hospital staff and the wounded weary. Russian unmanned drones are retrofitted with explosives, turning them into kamikaze machines and launched to fly behind enemy lines and hit vital targets, including military hospitals. Due to visibility, the attacks are typically made during the day. But the night is also a deadly experience for Ukraine's troops and foreign volunteers. If a soldier gets shot at night, their chances of being successfully extracted from the battlefield and taken to a hospital can plummet. Of course, since the skirmishes are less frequent, some doctors suggest that it can sometimes be easier to help a wounded soldier in the field and provide first aid without the risk of enemy fire. If Otto's skirmish happened at night, we might not have had the opportunity to get this peek into the true extent of how it is in Ukraine for a foreign legionnaire. But what's the legal status of a foreign soldier fighting for Ukraine? Initially, German law prohibits its nationals from being recruited by foreign militaries. According to German criminal law 109h, anyone trying to recruit a German to fight for the benefit of another country can be punished with up to five years in prison. Of course, our German sniper has volunteered for the post, which makes this law moot. According to the official German reports, German soldiers fighting for another country are technically breaking the law as it was written. However, the current stance of the German government is that it won't prosecute German citizens who are fighting in Ukraine. A spokesperson for the German Ministry of Internal Affairs suggested that entering Ukraine with the aim of taking part in combat operations there or being trained for it is not punishable as such under German criminal law. There's one stipulation that can lead to a soldier being tried for taking part in the fighting, and that is committing war crimes. It practically removed military extremism from the ranks of the Ukrainian International Legion. Not all countries share those views, and the Legion itself is not fully insulated against scrutiny. While Germany prevents Germans from being hired by foreign armies yet doesn't disallow volunteering, especially in the circumstances of the current invasion of Ukraine, nearby Austria has a different law. There, soldiers who fight for another country can be stripped of their citizenship even if they volunteer. Therefore, an Austrian soldier trying to join the Ukrainian International Legion might run into problems. Currently, one report suggests that the Ukraine International Legion has soldiers from over 55 different nations. However, the exact number of soldiers in the Legion is difficult to determine. An early report suggested there were over 20,000 applicants for the Legion by March 2022, a mere month after the invasion began. However, later details reduce that number to a mere 1,500. On the other hand, a report by Vice suggested that there were roughly 2,000 International Legion soldiers fighting in February 2023, a year after the invasion. According to Vice's headline, the romantics are gone, which includes combat veterans who wanted more of the war action, as well as thrill-seekers who believed the war to be the pinnacle of excitement. Originally, the terms of the Legion contract were lax, with Vice reporting that many early volunteers would leave within three to six months. According to Carl Larson, an Iraqi war veteran who also served in the Legion, one of the biggest issues for the first round of recruits was not the inability to find good soldiers, but weeding out bad ones. Larson estimated that roughly 20% of the soldiers would bulk out of the fight after their first time under Russian artillery fire and return home. Naturally, this has led to a stagnation in the Legion numbers, which brought the aforementioned 2,000 soldier estimate. In April 2024, the Legion also amended the General Service contract for volunteers, forcing them to stay in the Legion for at least six months, without any guarantees on where and when they will be deployed to the front line. The people who are left in the Legion include trained soldiers like our German sniper Otto. While there are a few possible reasons behind fighting for another country, valor and morality included, the Legion also makes sure that the soldiers are compensated. According to official information from the International Legion's website, the monthly payment for a soldier goes from $550 for a non-combatant deployment away from the front lines to $4,800 for direct frontline combat deployment. This is the same compensation Ukrainian nationals receive while being part of the army. While foreign soldiers make up a tiny fraction of the total size of the Ukrainian military, their presence on the battlefield is a surefire way to drum up positive morale about the Ukrainian side of the war. Western nationals often have much larger media outreach and can provide us with a more detailed narrative of what truly happens in the trenches surrounding Ukrainian cities, especially considering that they can leave at any time. Of course, this also means that the foreign fighters are not spared from the casualties and the terrors that are happening across the Ukraine front. According to some estimates by the Ukrainian army, over 100 Legionnaires were killed during the first year of the war. There are also likely many others who were captured by Russian forces and whose fate remains unknown. It's likely that they're being tortured for information or are being prepared for prisoner of war exchanges with Ukraine or their native countries. These statistics are also likely part of the reason why the influx of new volunteers is in constant ebb and flow. Even the veterans of the Legion, such as American and British soldiers who are in Iraq or Afghanistan, are likely not used to the sheer scale of the conflict and the hostile conditions imposed by a war between two technologically modern countries backed by powerful allies, NATO on the Ukrainian side and China on the Russian one. One of the outliers in this regard is the Georgian Legion, which is a separate military structure also integrated within the general Ukrainian army. It's primarily made from Georgian nationals, an ethnic group that suffered greatly from the Russo-Georgian war in 2008, the first of whom joined the Ukrainian army as early as 2014. The Georgian Legion contains roughly 1,000 soldiers, half of whom are Georgian, with the other half hailing from over 30 other countries. The Georgian Legion has been noted to be especially effective at recruiting American soldiers. It's possible that one of the biggest reasons for the sheer number of early volunteers was the hope that the war wouldn't last long. According to Putin's early plans, the invasion of Ukraine was supposed to be a resounding success after mere weeks. When that didn't happen, a lot of the world believed that the fighting wouldn't continue for long after the Ukrainian army managed to repel the initial push. While we have the gift of hindsight, it's likely that many hopefuls wanted to help Ukraine win the war against Russia in a few months and go back home. Of course, that didn't end up happening, and many international soldiers quickly realized that the war could go on for years. They decided to consider their time well spent in gruesome conditions and return home. While the Legion itself is generally painting a positive picture of foreign soldiers, some reports are much more concerning. For example, not all foreign soldiers joined the fight for a good reason. The International Legion does have some applicant requirements, but it's also been implicated in allowing several criminals to join its ranks. Currently, the official stance of the Legion is that all volunteers must have a clean record and have no history of prosecution. But some people become criminals only after joining the Legion. One widely publicized account was that of an American who supposedly joined the Legion in the first waves in early 2022. Rather than being on the front lines, he spent a lot of time creating social media posts and spreading awareness of the actions of the Ukrainian military. The problem was that none of the accomplishments he mentioned were his own. Being situated away from the front line, he would visit recent battlefields and claim the destroyed equipment as part of his contributions to various campaigns. It later turned out that the Legion's process of verifying volunteers was rushed and that the American was able to slip through the cracks and stay on Ukrainian soil without an official contract with the International Legion and therefore the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was one of the few shortcomings of the early involvement of the International Legion in the opening months of the prolonged Russo-Ukrainian conflict and something that the Legion has hopefully fixed by now. Additionally, some early reports of foreign volunteers suggested that the Ukrainian army at its core might be only slightly better than the Russian one. According to a report published in The Telegraph in August 2022, the International Legion has occasionally ordered what were borderline suicide missions and looting sprees. The former were outlined in a joint report by a few former British army soldiers who were in the Legion. They suggested that the Legion military intelligence had effectively ordered international troops to reinforce a position that had been previously abandoned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine only days prior and was under significant Russian pressure. This outlines a potential issue that the Ukrainian army is more willing to use foreign troops as cannon fodder and under-prepare them for the situation they're in. Ultimately, the goal of the International Legion is the same as the Armed Forces of Ukraine and it's highly unlikely that all members are implicated in the reports. For the 1,500 to 2,000 soldiers that remain within Ukraine's borders, they are likely getting the same treatment as the rest of the Ukrainian army. Therefore, it's possible that the accusations are lapses in commands that could have happened regardless of the units involved. Based on other interviews with the International Legionnaires, many believe that the Legion is doing an outstanding job supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Most Legionnaires are a part of Ukrainian units, providing key support or becoming frontline troops. However, there's one important caveat that you need to keep in mind. Throughout all of this, foreign fighters like our German sniper Otto can leave Ukraine at pretty much any time. The contract with the International Legion can be cancelled by the soldier at any time so long as they aren't actively deployed onto the battlefield and have served for at least six months and the second requirement only applies to relatively fresh recruits. Ukrainian nationals don't have the same freedom. Once they're drafted into the army, they stay in until they're no longer able or the war ends. This has led to significant changes in the rules behind who can or can't be called up to join the Ukrainian military. Men between the ages of 25 and 60 can theoretically be called into military service at any point. All men between 18 and 60 are also required to contact military recruitment centers and maintain a current military ID. In times of war, they're required to keep their military ID with them at all times. Those in the conscription range also have to surrender their passports if they're eligible for military service, effectively blocking them from leaving the country. People who went through military training and have older IDs are also required to update them at the recruitment center. Failure to do so will lead to their arrest and they'll be brought to the recruitment center anyway regardless of whether they're being called to join the military. Furthermore, the Ukrainian losses have started to shift the minimal age of drafting. Previously, the conscription age was 27 before being lowered to 25 in April 2024. This would potentially increase the size of the armed forces of Ukraine by as many as 50,000 troops. The deployment age remains 27, meaning that a man conscripted into the army at 25 would potentially have two years of non-combat deployment and training behind them before being called to fight at the front lines. However, Ukrainian President Zelensky has noted that this might only be a stopgap and that the deployment age could be lowered to match the conscription age if there's a dire need for it. Considering that Ukraine has potentially amassed over 300,000 casualties over the past 30 months, an extrapolation of an August 2023 report made by US officials, it's likely that this might not be a question of if but of when. At its peak, the armed forces of Ukraine had around 500,000 troops, so the casualty number is a significant drain on the reserves. With that in mind, Ukraine has also resorted to a tactic that Russia utilized to bolter its ranks of soldiers, conscripting convicts. While not all convicts are able to volunteer for military service, for example, murderers and rapists will never be considered, the possibility of parole upon completion of their deployment can be a significant motivator. According to some estimates, this still allows for roughly 20,000 fresh recruits to join the Ukrainian army from prison, which could be extremely helpful at a time when human resources are at a premium. To crack down on people who are trying to avoid being called into the military, the Ukrainian government has significantly increased the draft dodging fine. What was previously a mere $86 fine is now roughly $130, while repeat violations will result in a fine of $634. For comparison, the average monthly salary in Ukraine is roughly $560. The changes have reverberated throughout the Ukrainian public, and not all of the responses were positive. Without them, Ukraine could quickly dig itself into a much worse position, increasing the imminent possibility of them losing the war. The current Ukrainian offensive in Russia is aiming to turn the tide in Ukraine's favor and hopefully liberate some of the occupied territory. This might be the big break the Ukrainian army is hoping for, and it wouldn't be possible without the international support provided by foreign aid, military equipment, and ammunitions donations, as well as the bravery and commitment shown by foreign volunteer troops like the German sniper Otto. Despite that, it's important to keep in mind a harrowing warning made by Otto. Yes, I kill people. Yes, but they kill us too. There's an old law in which one who wins the firefight is the one who is faster and shoots better. In the current war, both sides will suffer and continue to accumulate losses. It's only through international cooperation that it can be resolved. But what do you think about the impact of the Ukrainian International Legion? How long will the war last? Leave your comments below and thank you for watching.