Avengers assemble

The foreign fighters coming to Kyiv’s aid

- Luke Harding

I gor Gavrylko was at his home in west London when the Russian bombs began to fall on Ukraine. A British citizen originally from Ukraine, he had lived in the UK since 1996. He rang his boss. “I knew a Russian invasion was going to happen,” he said. “My Ukrainian grandfather fought against the Red Army and the Nazis … Now it’s my turn.”

Gavrylko set off by car and drove across Europe. By the time he arrived in Ukraine, his elderly parents had already had a narrow escape. Russian missiles had destroyed the airport in their home town of Ivano-Frankivsk. “My city was bombarded,” he said.

Gavrylko arranged for his mother, sister and four-year-old niece to escape to Poland. His 74-year-old father, Bog dan, refused to leave. Gavrylko is one of thousands of volunteers from around the world who have come to Ukraine to defend the country from Russian attack. Some have Ukrainian roots. Others are military veterans with no family ties. According to Gavrylko, “several hundred” Britons have arrived. There are volunteers from Canada and the US. Others have come from the Baltic states and Georgia, itself the victim of Russian aggression and a punitive five-day war in 2008.