‘If you can’t send tanks, send crisps’: The Briton on the front line in Ukraine’s foreign legion

The one thing Craig, a Londoner, misses more than anything else while fighting on the front line in Ukraine is salt and vinegar crisps.

At the start of 2022, the 31-year-old was a  semi-retired network cabling engineer more likely to be found “chilling out and snowboarding”.

Then, on 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine. The Stockwell resident was so enraged he couldn’t sleep for three days. In the end, despite having no combat experience, he travelled to the war-torn country and signed up for the foreign legion. Four months on, he is still fighting as an infantryman on one of many front lines, where the fighting is ferocious.

In the worst moments in the trenches, under relentless Russian fire, when food and supplies are scarce, he says home comforts get the troops through.

“It’s an artillery battle so we spend a lot of time in holes and the little things do make a big difference,” he explains from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, while on leave from an undisclosed frontline location. It’s not much of a break: Kharkiv lies just a few kilometres from the border with Russia and is under constant shelling and missile fire.

“The care packages civilians have sent us, when they have made it through, are awesome,” he continues, holding his assault rifle: the magazine is decorated with the label from a tin of British canned hot dogs.

“Once we had 2,000 socks turn up at a time when we had all run out of socks. It was the best thing ever. Socks, can you believe it?”

But even better than socks are snacks.

“For me, it’s salt and vinegar crisps, I really want them, they are the best crisps in the world. I’ve asked everyone I know to send them to me. It just takes forever to get them through customs. The little things can really change your day.”

Craig was speaking on the fringes of a press conference, organised by Media Centre Ukraine, a group supported by local and central government in the country.

Foreign fighters within the ranks of the Ukraine military are not a new concept, many have signed up over the last eight years since the conflict first erupted in the east of the country. But this February, in the early days of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of an official foreign legion and urged citizens from across the world to join.

Defence ministry and foreign legion officials have declined to tell The Independent how many are now among their ranks.

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But there are thought to be as many as 20,000 foreigners, some from countries as far away as Australia, who heeded Mr Zelenksy’s call. A spokesperson for the foreign legion told The Independent that recruitment is constant.

The number of Britons is also a closely guarded secret. The British government has told people who had no military training to keep away from Ukraine, although foreign secretary Liz Truss did say initially that she supported individuals who wanted to fight alongside international forces.

Craig says there were five Brits in his company alongside Poles, Americans, Australians, Brazilians and even one man from Taiwan.

“Within Europe you kind of expect people to join us but those who have come from countries that are a long way away, that really surprises me,” he adds.

At the start though, there was a high dropout rate, particularly among those from the UK, he explains.

“A lot of them were young and freaked out. It’s scary every day. Our position can get pretty hairy.”

Ryan, 33, an American member of Craig’s company who also spoke to The Independent in Kharkiv, says he thought Americans made up one of the largest factions, despite this being a European war.

“I think for a lot of army veterans from the US, there may be a sense that they fought in several wars without a purpose over the last 20 years,” the former mountaineer guide from Georgia continues.

“Maybe it’s part of a redemption tour to use the skills they have to finally fight a just war where they are wanted and needed.”

For Craig, joining the foreign legion was no joke and he had a baptism of fire at the start.

During his first two weeks in the country, he was stationed at Yaroviv base near the border with Poland for training. While he was there it came under a massive missile attack: the first time Craig had ever experienced conflict.

“Russia hit us with 36 cruise missiles; luckily the Ukrainians shot most of them down. Eight of them got through and it was pretty scary. I did think at the time, ‘what have I done?’”

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But he stuck it out and after training was dispatched to the front. Foreign legionnaires sign year-long contracts, as Craig has, with the military but unlike Ukrainians can leave whenever they want, he explains. The army helps shuttle those who have had enough out of the conflict zone pretty fast, Craig says.

Since then he has had some close calls. Although one of the toughest moments for him was ferrying a dead soldier to the hospital.

“We had to look for his passport. When they opened the [body] bag he was a pretty big mess that was pretty horrible. Something like that brings it home a bit,” he adds quietly.

Aaron, 38, another American in Craig’s company, who before the war designed hospitals, says the worst day for him was when they were ambushed trying to rescue fellow legionnaires who were stuck under shelling. Aaron also had no combat experience before signing up although he shoots competitively back at home, where his wife and 18-year-old daughter live.

“They rained mortars all over us. We had to turn around. I spent that night not knowing if my friends were alive or we had left them for dead ” he adds, explaining that in the end everyone – his unit and the one that was trapped – made it out.

“I’m not ashamed to admit I cried when I saw them.”

He says they were lucky to have fire support from US-donated M777 howitzers and hoped Washington would keep up its deliveries of military aid.

“I’m not sure we could’ve made it out alive without that. Things like artillery systems, long-range rockets, that means more of us can come home alive to our families,” he adds.

They face not only the danger of Russian fire but the possibility of being captured. Russia has made it clear that despite the fact foreign soldiers are officially part of the Ukrainian military they will not be treated as prisoners of war, who are protected under the Geneva conventions.

Instead, at least three foreign soldiers, including two British citizens, part of the Ukrainian forces captured in Mariupol,  have been sentenced by Russian-backed separatists to death as mercenaries.

Craig says he tries not to think too much about that.

“It crossed my mind maybe two or three times, but now it doesn’t bother me. They can do what they want,” he says with a nervous laugh.

Craig and his American colleagues are determined to stick it out until the end of the war.

Although his claims of warfare cannot be verified by The Independent, Craig thinks he may even move full-time to Ukraine after the fighting stops. It has probably been the steepest learning curve of his life, he adds. Bar “missing my missus”, he has no regrets.

“We have everybody from all over the world in our battalion but there are never ever any issues. That is how the world should be together: stood together for Ukraine. Nothing else matters,” he adds, taking a quick cigarette break.

“My main message to the UK is keep supporting Ukraine, the big things and the little things can change the bigger picture.

“If you can’t send tanks, send some crisps. Something that will cheer a soldier up.”