Ukraine Foreign Legion Program Needs Revision!

Discussion in 'Russia & Eastern Europe' started by JimfromPennsylvania, Apr 3, 2022.

  1. JimfromPennsylvania

    JimfromPennsylvania Active Member Past Donor

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    Foreign Ministries and State Departments should advocate to the government of Ukraine to refine their system for handling foreigners that come and want to come to Ukraine to offer military service to Ukraine in its war against Russia to better respect these foreigners and better avail themselves of the service they are prepared to offer. The Ukrainian government should not require these recruits to make an enlistment commitment for the entire length of the war, the enlistment period should only be for "one" year as well as reenlistments. Ukraine is in the most brutal war against Russia the physical and mental strain of such combat can break an ordinary person down, to be considerate to these foreigners they should be given an option at a year to exit moreover if these foreigners know that their commitment is only for a year they will better able to deal with the strain, one good way to deal with strain is to hold the perspective that I only have to endure this for a limited amount of time. Some Ukrainian Generals might say the enlistment for Ukrainians is longer why should there be a disparity Ukrainian and Foreigners both are exposed to the same combat. The answer to that question is that the Ukrainians are fighting for their families, community and nations survival if they lose they and their people will live under severe oppression by the Russian government; the foreigners are fighting because of virtue they believe the Russian invasion is morally and they want to help the Ukrainian people stop this unbelievable injustice. Ukranian generals may say how can we manage the utilization of forces if at one year a huge portion of our forces suddenly leaves the military, forces are necessary to not lose battles; first, the foreigners number a minor percentage of Ukrainian fighters overall and likely a large portion of the foreigners will reenlist so ten months into the war the Ukrainian Generals can ask the foreign troops the reenlistment question and thereby determine the number of troop losses for each foreign unit and just send that number of replacement soldiers to the respective unit and the foreign units can be a little staff level heavy for two months. The Ukrainian Government should automatically convert these entire war enlistments for foreigners to one year enlistments for the aforementioned reasons.

    Some reports are that the foreign troops aren't respected and valued and treated equally to Ukrainian troops. The Ukrainian people are a good people they don't want to treat the foreigners coming to help them like that. The Ukranian government should allow foreigners to become officers what is primarily meant here is within and for the foreign units, that would result somewhat with foreign officers looking out for the foreign troops and getting them fairly resourced with supplies and combat support; granted it may take some time to get major penetration of foreigners into the officer corp. of the Ukrainians to a large degree it would have to be earned by battlefield competence which takes time. Most importantly it would be understand that foreigners are not going to rise to the point of high command where they make the big picture decision of which major cities to deploy major resources and what overall strategy is used to defend and retake cities because those decisions should be made by a Ukrainian citizens considering the full ramifications of such decisions.

    This is just a lay mans observation but I think that even more so than fighters at this point what Ukraine needs is support and logistics personnel which is something I think that foreigners should be tapped for. The media has clearly reported that Ukraine is refurbishing broken down and damaged Russian equipment so that it can be used by the Ukrainian military. From observations of Russian tanks and troop carriers and other such things abandoned on the battlefield it seems like Ukraine could do a better job there. Now most of the foreigners coming to help Ukraine are guys and many guys are into cars and constructing things and using tools; there is probably a lot of help here the Ukrainian military could get by tapping these foreigners they don't have to have mechanic experience on tanks but if they know how to work on cars for the right person that ability can translate into cannibalizing abandoned Russian tanks and other equipment and producing some usable tanks and other equipment. The Ukrainian military is going to have a hell of a challenge supplying and resupplying its forces defending the Ukrainian forces on the Ukrainian front line in the Donbas and around Odesa especially from getting encircled by Russian troops and considering that much of those supplies will have to come from Ukraine's western border. As I referenced earlier I am not a military guy but as your President prudently said the Russians are coming to the Donbas and the south in humongous forces so Ukraine's logistics operation for defending Ukrainian forces will have to cross the Dnieper river I have never seen that river one just looks at a map and it doesn't look like one that vehicles or people will be able to traverse on their own power; and Ukrainian forces cannot have too many crossings for the Dnieper. Because of the Russian militaries scorched earth policy Ukraine has hundreds of uninhabitable severely damaged steel frame buildings; why doesn't the Ukrainian military have crews with jack hammers and acetylene torches and a little ingenuity and cut out the steel I beams from those high rises and use them to make crude bridges (no concrete needed however welders and some steel plates) across the Dnieper if in three or four weeks they could make two or three crossings that would help keep open vital supply lines and God forbid it would allow the Ukrainian military to take valuable military equipment to the west of Ukraine if Ukraine has to retreat from the east. Use the foreigners to help cut out these steel beams, it is not hard to use a jack hammer and an acetylene torch, it will take common sense and responsible behavior to accomplish the task without getting people hurt though.


    Reports are that some of the foreigners that come are rejected out of hand because they have no experience. If they have the physical ability, the right attitude and are responsible they should at least be admitted to the training camp after going to the camp if their performance is deficient they could just be released from their enlistment on the grounds that they did not complete the training program. During the training program there should be an attempt to teach the trainees the Ukrainian language; because if a foreign fighter can learn to be fluent in the Ukrainian language if the Ukrainian commanders for whatever reason needs to combine foreign fighters that are fluent in Ukrainian with a Ukrainian unit they should be able to do so because it makes the Ukrainian fighting force more cohesive and so stronger. There should be repeated attempts to teach foreign fighters the Ukrainian language because they will have more military value if they can speak the native language.
     
  2. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    My take is that these foreigners are probably more trouble to the Ukrainian military than they're worth. That's why they've been mostly using them as cannon fodder. There are probably a very few who have unique skills that would be a benefit, but they are probably few and far between.
     

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