“Everyone’s a Little Problematic in Ukraine’s International Legion”

“I think the First Battalion of the International Legion is a total shitshow.“

Source: Isgal

“Benjamin Velcro” is former US serviceman and volunteer with the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, the official unit of foreign volunteers under the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In early August, Russian media widely shared voice recordings in which Velcro recounted the torture and murder of a Russian prisoner of war.

“I don’t know where the fuck he was from, somewhere in Central Asia or Central Russia. He was about 18. We were told to take no prisoners. Because we had been told we were just mercenaries and we’d be executed by Russia. So we don’t give a fuck, man. We slit his fucking achilles and made him swim across the Severodonetsk River, to see if he could swim across the river without achilles tendons. He drowned…or he was shot, I don’t know. We were all kinda taking practice shots at him.”

According to Velcro, the horrific war crime he detailed didn’t actually happen. “I had just come back from the front. I was drunk. And I just decided to troll this Russian guy I met in Thailand years ago by telling him this story. Next thing I knew, that shit just blew up on Russian media.”

Velcro, who speaks Russian fluently, was already in Ukraine when the war started in February. His fiancée, a woman from Mariupol, had just left him. “I wanted to do something good,” he said. “So I organized my own primitive humanitarian missions, bringing bags of medical supplies across the border to Ukraine and giving them to different volunteer groups. But I wanted to do more. I was in the US military, in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I’d already lived in Ukraine before, so this wasn’t a war tourism gig for me.” Velcro joined a small volunteer combat unit in Ukraine before joining the International Legion as a drone pilot.

The International Legion

“I’d have to categorize the people in the International Legion by ethnic groups,” he said. “The Polish people who come, they see this as an extension of the defense of their own country. They see Ukraine as their backyard. And probably 3000-something Euros a month is a good salary for them. So, you add those factors up, and you have a lot of Polish people.

“The other Europeans, in general, are a mixed bag. You have some people who miss military service. You have a lot of people who are just lost, they fucked up a lot in their lives, and they see joining the International Legion as a way to redeem themselves.

“And then there are the people from Latin America. They’re motivated by money. From a Colombian’s perspective…they’re pretty well-known for being mercenaries abroad. They’re making way more money fighting for Ukraine than they could dream of making in their own country.”

“Everyone’s a little problematic in the Legion,” Velcro continued. “I think the First Battalion of the International Legion is a total shitshow. The best example is Craig Lang. Craig Lang is wanted for double murder in the US, and he’s in First Battalion. That guy should not be in the Legion.”

Craig Lang, a 32-year-old US Army veteran, first went to Ukraine in 2015. He joined the Right Sector and Azov Battalion, two far-right militias who openly espouse a neo-Nazi ideology. After returning to the US, Lang allegedly murdered Danny and Deana Lorenzo in Florida in 2018. He then fled to Ukraine. In addition to facing murder charges, Lang is being investigated by the US Department of Justice for war crimes he allegedly committed in Donbas. He is currently a member of the International Legion.

“Another point of corruption is the spokesperson for the International Legion,” Velcro said. “She is a fraud. She goes by ‘Mockingjay.’ She was outed for all kinds of fraud in other countries. She isn’t who she pretends to be.”

Emese Fajk, 30, used forged bank slips to win a reality TV show auction in Australia in 2020. She fled to Maidera Island, where she met and dated a wealthy cryptocurrency trader, Steve Silva. She again forged bank slips to defraud her landlord in Madeira of rent she owed and stole electronics from Silva. She later surfaced in Ukraine, where she is the press officer of the International Legion.

“And weapons go missing,” Velcro said. “Two MP5s went missing from the International Legion. The idea of weapons going missing…in the US military, if a private drops a rifle during a training exercise, and for some reason, stumbles back to his formation without it, the whole base would be locked down until the rifle was found. And two MP5s just…drifting off. Lord knows how many RPGs, grenades, and AKs are just out there floating around. I feel like Ukraine is going to be a major hub for weapons trafficking, if it wasn’t already.”

The Far-Right

“I met some people from Right Sector,” Velcro said. “I mean, how can a group called Right Sector deny its political leanings? At a minimum, I think they were all very Banderist-type Ukrainians.” On its official website and social media accounts, the Right Sector, a political party with an armed wing that formed in 2013, has railed against immigrants, the LGBT community, and Muslims. Their soldiers often wear patches bearing Nazi insignia. To them, as to all of Ukraine’s far-right militias, Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera is a Ukrainian national hero.

“In reality, military circles generally bring in kind of right wing people,” Velcro mused. “Even in the US, there are some crazy motherfuckers. I mean, those Capitol Hill riots, a lot of those dudes are military veterans. It was pretty inevitable. You open up the doors to foreign fighters in a conflict and people with political ideologies wanting training are going to want to come and get more of that.

‘And the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, there were definitely some people with hard right wing views filtering in, and not enough action was being taken to like curb this shit. We had one dude in our unit that would just put this stuff, like, Misanthropic Division shit all over his fucking gear and he opened up his phone and you saw like, White Lives Matter.”

The Realities of War

“There are a lot of foreign volunteers here who have issues,” Velcro said. “I mean, there has to be something wrong with you to want to stay here after experiencing Russian shelling. It’s one thing to come here and think you’re going to get into some movie-style shootout with the Russians. The reality of what happens is there’s extensive trading of artillery fire. Infantrymen really don’t do much except get killed or hold ground.”

“The comforts that you had as a Western soldier don’t exist here. I remember the first time I got shelled, like really fucking shelled. We were in the middle of a field in the Donbas and there was no communications.  It was dark, and we had no night vision goggles. We were told to dig if we expected to live, and that there’s going to be an armored assault coming through, and that the Ukrainian soldiers had abandoned their post for some reason. I said to myself, ‘What the fuck am I doing with my life, man? Why am I in this situation? This is absolute insanity.’ But then I fucking just leaned into it.”

Velcro does not think Ukraine currently has a realistic chance to win the war. “Russia probably has a lot more weapons than Ukraine can handle and sustain,” he reasoned. “We all know that Russia is not feeling the pinch, economically-speaking. The middle-class, urbanite people are not feeling the pinch…yet. People who say otherwise are delusional. You have to consider that there’s a 10% inflation rate…something like 20% in France. A lot of people are going to stop wanting to fund this war.”

Weapons supply issues have hit all segments of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including the International Legion. “There’s total grift and corruption going on everywhere,” Velcro said. “Some of the volunteer groups are now weapons trafficking. I went into the supply room and I asked my team leader for uniforms for my soldiers. And he said, ‘We don’t have any uniforms.’

“And I said, ‘Man, it’s going to get cold here. If you guys don’t have regular uniforms to supply these foreign fighters now, what’s going to happen when it’s freezing out?’ The network of volunteers is burning out. You can’t sustain a war crowd-funding it forever.

“We’re driving around in unarmored technicals on the frontline. At one point, the Legion even asked me to pay to help repair a vehicle, and I did. I went up to an ABC News crew who had driven up to us in an armored vehicle, and I said, ‘So, you guys get legit armored vehicles? I wish we had those.’ The ABC cocksuckers just gave me a smirky look.

“Reading the comments on Reddit, and all that kind of delusional bullshit, where people write, ‘Oh, well, they get all these javelins.’ No, man, those javelins are gone. 70% of them were fired off in the beginning of the war. The US sent out a huge stockpile of them right before the war, and the US has a 36 month wait period for one javelin to come into the line. So there won’t be javelins, or nice anti-tank guided missile systems anymore.”

Ukraine’s War Crimes

Velcro’s experiences with the International Legion in Ukraine support a recently-published Amnesty International report alleging that Ukrainian Armed Forces have been stationing soldiers and operating military equipment in civilian areas. “Whenever I hear like a story about Russians hitting a school, I just kind of shrug,” he said. “Because I was garrisoned inside a school at one point. The school didn’t have kids in it, so it’s not like they were endangering children. But, you know, all it takes is for Ukraine to say, ‘Ah! They hit a school!’ And that kind of just cumulates into a fucking easy media narrative on their their part.

“And everyone knows that since 2014, Ukraine has been forced to fight a war in which it didn’t have guided weapons. And even with guided weapons, we can talk about mistakes that the U.S. made in Afghanistan recently, for that matter. But I mean, of course, Ukraine probably shelled civilian areas. This sort of collateral damage is inevitable.”

Burn out

Velcro has now left the International Legion. “I’m just too burnt out. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t scope through a myriad of foreign government entities to find a legit unit that’s well-supplied and has people who are committed…I’m just burnt out.”

*Benjamin Velcro has stated that he doesn’t believe the Ukrainian military, especially Azov, has a significant problem with the far right; “They are rare, but present. However, presumably somewhere in the Donbas is an ex-Israeli Defense forces soldier, an islamist from Chechnya, a French neo-Nazi, and a bisexual guy from Taiwan holding a trench line. The ideology is simply, ‘fuck Russia and let’s kill them.’”

5 Comments
  1. YakovKedmi says

    Bla-bla-bla & blah, blah, blah.

    Luckily, the Expeditionary Force of Empire Russia and pan-slavdom is made up of saints and patron-saints —from Milchakov to Shoigu, and the Cheka in between.

    Ishgal, the inventor of true news, wouldn’t want to approach the real problems with this “Operation Special Freedom Liberty” with a 9-inch nail, much less write about it. So he posts misleading propaganda pieces to guide the attention into a blind alley.

    1. padre says

      It’s like, what about them?! It’s not just us, why do you think he should talk aboutbad Russians, when he isexplaining his situation?

  2. Abraham Lincoln says

    pro racist supremacist Jewish Judoe Nazi website the total defeat of your offensive in Ukraine is confirmed.

    The road for Nikolaev, Odessa and Kharkiv is now wide open.

    https://warnews247.gr/esvise-i-antepithesi-pyrini-kolasi-sto-tounel-thanatou-tis-kostromka-tragikos-thanatos-gia-200-oukranous-apo-tos-1-chathikan-3-tagmata-armaton-machis/

    Wiped the counter-attack: inferno in the “tunnel of death” of Kostromka – Tragic death for 200 Ukrainian from TOS-1 – Lost 3 Battalions of tanks!
    Left without supplies the Ukrainians – See the confession Ukrainian
    02/09/2022 – 16:24 in Main topics, Ukraine

    Wiped the counter-attack: inferno in the “tunnel of death” of Kostromka – Tragic death for 200 Ukrainian from TOS-1 – Lost 3 Battalions of tanks!

    Inferno has broken out in the area of Cherson by the Ukrainian forces, who were imprisoned in the region Sukhoi Stavok and Kostromka burned alive by incendiary bombs TOS-1.

    The Russians confirmed the scenario of the ambush and caging them in the “tunnel of death” as first revealed the WarNews247 a few days ago.

    Read also: Ukrainian advance in Kostromka: Ambush-a landmark of the Russians, that finishes the Ukrainian Army – Russian analyst: “a blood Bath”

    The Russians speak of at least two Companies that were lost in these areas, the 28th Ukrainian motorized Brigade has suffered large losses.

    Russian military sources speak of Apocalyptic scenes in the area of Cherson. Specifically:

    “Thanks to the Russian heavy systems of artillery, the attempted counter-attack of Ukrainian troops has been cancelled. As soon as the Ukrainian military tried to take positions for attack, were successfully multiple hits with mortars and heavy systems, TOS-1.

    In accordance with the evidence presented, the Ukrainian troops suffered very large losses. It is estimated that the total losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to reach the 200 people.

    Today, the activity of Ukrainian troops in Kherson was very low compared with previous days. This shows that, most probably because of large losses, Kiev is now at a dead end.”

    See a video of what exactly happened

    According to information, the new fourth day, the attack of the Ukrainian army in Kherson slowed down. The Ukrainians have so far been suspended companies to go ahead in almost all the sectors of the front.

    ► The efforts of Ukrainians to break through the Russian defenses in the direction of Zelenodolsk-Novovoznesensk continue in development are fierce battles.

    ► The Russian army uses constantly artillery, MLRS, and missile systems, TOS-1, and air force.

    ► The Ukrainian forces attempt to break through the Russian defenses near the Osokorovka, Novo-Vorontsovka, Apostolov.

    ► Russian troops changed their regular position, so to be able to surround the Ukrainian forces in the village of Πετρόβκα.

    -The administration of Ukrainians gather additional forces to make another attempt to attack and extension of the control area, especially near the Kostromka and Vysokopole.

    -The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were able to regain control in the southern parts of Olgino and Vysokopole.

    -The battles continue in the northern suburbs in Arkhangelsk

    -The units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation managed to regain control of the Thorn Pod and Zelenyi Hai.

    -Directions from Myrne and Lyubomirovka (Red Banner) there are no businesses. The Ukrainian forces have taken over defensive positions.

    -Half an hour ago, the Ukrainians launched another attack from the Kiselivka in the direction Blaohodatnoe in front Snigirev.

    See video from Kherson

    Inferno between Cherson and Nikolaev
    The Russian army has prepared a fiery hell for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which went between Cherson and Nikolaev.

    MLRS and TOS-1 bomb in front of the Ukrainian forces.

    The Russian defense ministry reported that the Ukrainian forces are trying to gain a base in the direction of Nikolaev-Kryvyi Rih.

    According to the Russian defence minister:

    “The regime in Kiev continues its unsuccessful attempts to gain ground in some areas in the direction of Nikolaev-Kryvyi Rih.

    The aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the rocket troops and artillery, causing significant losses in units and spares of Ukrainian troops.

    In just one day hostilities in this direction, the enemy lost 13 tanks, 19 combat vehicles of infantry, 12 other armoured fighting vehicles, 11 trucks with heavy machine guns and more than 330 military. Two soldiers were arrested.

    In the region, Andreevka, in Kherson, two Ukrainian aircraft Su-25 and a fighter, MiG-29, which brought american missiles αντιραντάρ HARM, were shot down.

    During the day, the Russian Air force struck: the point of a temporary development of the 17 brigade battle tanks in the area Bereznegovatoe, as well as hangars with weapons and military equipment of the 46th brigade in the vicinity of Belaya Krinitsa in the region Nikolaev.

    More than 40 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and up to 10 units of military equipment were destroyed” concludes the update.

    See video of the shelling Ukrainian forces

    The Ukrainian forces left without supplies
    The Ukrainian administration, following the failed counterattack in the directions Kherson and Nikolaev, is looking for options to get out of the situation that is extremely difficult for the Ukrainian army in the south.

    The losses of the Ukrainian troops over 2,000 people, and this was done in just three days. At the same time, the remnants of the Ukrainian forces are essentially without communication, dispersed in the fields of Cherson.

    Several relatively large Ukrainian groups fell into ambushes. That’s because due to the extensive line “counter-attack”, when forward quotes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ended up in the area of the settlement of Dry Stavok on the left bank of the river Ingulets with exposed sides.

    Just last night, scattered enemy forces a total of up to two companies cleared the area Sukhoi Stavka and Kostromka. Some of them tried to enter the villages under the cover of night to try and resist it from there. However, most of those who have tried have failed due to the Russian MLRS.

    Now, to the fields of battle, there are reports that the Ukrainian army, dispersed in fact, the bare steppe, trying to get in contact with their commanders to take data on which direction to move, where to wait for supplies .

    The issue of power of the Ukrainian troops, which crossed the left bank of the Ingulets –section, who survived– the urgent need for Ukrainian commanders. The English quotes have launched a counteroffensive, but in the end lost the opportunity to carry out any kind of organized supply.

    See video: the Confession of a Ukrainian soldier in accordance with the Russians.

    “In two days, we’ve lost half our power. The Russians and the militias they have all of it.”

    “Scrap” 94 battle tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in three days
    In three days of in Kherson, Ukraine’s Armed Forces have lost 94 tanks.

    “The Armed Forces of Ukraine have suffered large losses, having lost three battalions of tanks in just three days.

    Now that Kiev is facing shortages of military equipment, such losses are colossal for the army.

    As is apparent from the data presented for the period from 30 August to 1 September, the total losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine only between the forces that were trying to develop a counter-attack in the Kherson reached 94 tanks, which corresponds to the loss of three battalions of tanks.

    The losses proved to be so huge that the Armed Forces of Ukraine stopped short of offensive operations, possibly fearing that it could be much more severe losses in the event of a counter-offensive of the Russian army.

    The loss of three battalions of tanks is by far one of the greatest losses in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the beginning of the special military operation, while experts note that part of the military equipment could also be damaged, and therefore actual losses , including temporary, may be much larger.

    In addition, they have destroyed 81 PEOPLE and 66 armored ” reported Russian military sources.
    The Russians beat Ukrainian forces

    Maps that shaped the situation in the region

  3. Dianthus says

    What most does not know what is coming soon in Russia… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er4Xs5fa5sI

  4. Oscar Peterson says

    Kind of funny that the guy who admits to taking part in killing a prisoner has all these ethical critiques to make about others.

    I guess he illustrates his own point.

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Anti-Empire