I'M FIGHTING AGAINST MY COUNTRY... PUTIN IS LEADING RUSSIA INTO THE ABYSS

In his latest dramatic dispatch from the war-torn nation, Lord Ashcroft meets a personal trainer who fled Russia to join Ukraine’s International Legion and hears why Codename Caesar is only too happy to have taken up arms in the struggle

- From Lord Ashcroft IN KYIV

TALK OF A possible ceasefire does not concern the unconventional soldier who goes by the military callsign of “Caesar”.

Even if Ukraine does eventually agree to a long-term peace deal, he will always be at war with Russia — the country of his birth — while Vladimir Putin remains in power.

His hatred of the Russian president and the brutal regime he represents is palpable — Caesar can barely even bring himself to say the dictator’s name.

It was for this reason that, more than three years ago, he risked his life to flee Russia in order to fight for Ukraine.

"I do not feel guilty for leaving my homeland. Instead, I feel proud that I am carrying out my Christian and military duty. I will follow my path to the end - I am prepared to die to defend Ukraine and for the cause of a free Russia," he told me.

Caesar’s life could hardly have changed more over the past three years.

On the morning of February 24, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, he was living and working in St Petersburg. A married man with four children, he worked as a fitness trainer in a gym in the city.

"I got up at 5am. Before going to work, I saw on the news that the rockets were flying towards Kyiv so I made an immediate decision to go and defend Ukraine," he recalled.

"In 2014 [when Russia illegally annexed Crimea and other parts of eastern Ukraine], I had some friends who went to fight for Ukraine against Russia. I wanted to go and join them but they talked me out of it.

"This time I did not discuss what I would do with anyone else. When I came home that night my whole family was distraught about the attack by Russia. They were upset and crying because they thought Ukraine would fall and cease to exist.

"I told them I was going to go and fight for Ukraine. They all supported me in my decision and do to this day."