When Zurab told me his second name, I asked him whether he was aware that there is a country in Africa called Djibouti.

Zurab laughed saying he knows the country and that it falls north of Ethiopia along the Red Sea Coast. A war hero by all account despite still serving, he has the permanent mark of all war heroes which for him is loss of both feet to a land mine – he now uses prosthesis feet.

Despite that he does not allow the thought of leaving the war front to creep into his mind even as talks that are led by US President Donald Trump keep faltering seeming to benefit Russian strong man Vladimir Putin rather than push for an end of the war.

Zurab is not a citizen of Ukraine, despite being half Ukrainian, he was born and raised in Georgia and was one of thousands of Georgian soldiers who decided to move into Ukraine following Russia’s full scale invasion in February 2022 –  some even joined earlier -soon after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.

Zurab is trained in banking and management but because of Russia’s excesses against its neighbors which includes his country of birth, Georgia, he decided to carve out a career in the military and is today an officer of the Georgian Defense Forces-he however serves on volunteer basis outside his country in the Georgian Legion in Ukraine

His commander Mamuka Mamulashvilli is the engine behind this unwavering fighting spirit. He has ensured his men- numbering at least 2500 – are focused on keeping the Russian army away from further encroaching into the lands it lays claim to in the Donbass region of Ukraine. Mamulashvilli is also not a citizen of Ukraine, he was born in a military family in Tbilisi, Georgia, to a General of the Georgian army- it was therefore clear to him from the beginning that he would follow in his father’s footsteps- to build a career in the military.

Of Mamulashvilli’s men, Zurab is not the only witty one, Dmitri Chitishvilli who likes to be addressed as Dima, believes that the current Russian leader Vladimir Putin is an extension of colonial minded Tsars of the Old Russian Empire and has a single minded focus on colonizing its neighbors

 “ To Russia peace means acquiring all other nations into the federation- there is no other way for them and so only war makes them understand the what others want”

The three soldiers who spoke to The Standard from Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, are part of thousands of men from Russia’s neighbors that volunteered to join the war front soon after Russia launched its full scale war on Ukraine on February 24, 2022.  

When they joined most European nations that are sympathetic to Ukraine following Putin’s full scale invasion, appeared reluctant to deploy troops to support the Ukrainian army. What most of them did was to offer support in kind through weapons and other funding methods.

As discussions went on in European capitals including London and Paris, volunteers from friendly nations that were tired of Russian excesses streamed to Kyiv in their thousands. Today Georgia leads other European countries for having its citizens joining the war on the Ukrainian side – numbering more than 2500.

Other volunteers in their hundreds that streamed into Kyiv were from Chechnya and Belarus- mostly those opposed to their President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s support for Russia. To aid the war effort President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government passed laws that created an independent military unit called International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine. 

The unit was created on 27 February 2022 and was originally part of the Territorial Defense Forces, under the name of International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, eventually transitioning into the command of the Ukrainian Ground Forces at some point in its existence. The role of the legions includind the Georgian one has been majorly anti tank warfare, clandestine operations, cold weather warfare, counterintelligence, force protection, sometimes direct action and other roles

While majority of men who join war efforts in different parts of the world do so for monetary value and financial benefits The Standard learns from the men it has spoken to, that none joined for money.

Zurab, Dmitri and their commander Mamulashvilli and majority of the more than two thousand volunteers of the Georgian legion did so purely on principle. That Ukraine stood with Georgia when it was invaded by Russia in 2008 leading to the Russo-Georgian war.

Born in Tbilisi the capital of Georgia Mamulashvilli went to school in Tbilisi. In the 1990s he participated in early resistances against Russian occupation against Georgia in the 90s especially after Russia occupied 20% of Georgian territory.

“ My father took me with him to participate in the military operation- he was a military general of the Georgian army, so we worked together against Russian aggression in Georgia. We fought for more than a year and we got to captivity together with my father. I was in Russian captivity when I was 14 for three months then I was exchanged by the program of war prisoners and I returned home in Tbilisi”.

Mamulashvilli said that as Georgia fought off Russian aggression Ukrainian was the only European nation whose citizens volunteered in support Georgia against the Russian army.

“They were the only people who volunteered to support Georgian sovereignty after we were invaded in 2008” Mamulashvillii said

 Owing to that and many other historical reasons he started forming the Georgian legion in 2014 after he saw signs of Russia invading Crimea. That happened in April of that year. He went to Ukraine and set up what is today the largest foreign legion in the Ukraine ground troops.

Mamulashvilli said during the12 years that he has led the legion his unit has grown from ten men in 2014 to more than 2000 today. His unit is made up of ex-soldiers of Georgia and others who have gathered experience fighting in Ukraine.

Unwilling to discuss in detail some of his legion’s most successful operations he only said  “We have participated in many different special operations and are continuing to participate in them. I cannot say that one was more successful than another, it is just hard work and we are doing it daily”.

For Mamulashvilli leading more than two thousand men in the war in Ukraine is a matter of principle with no monetary benefit.

“When you are fighting for democracy- you are defending the right values. Georgians came here to support a nation that supported them decades ago and we have to be here, we have to support Ukraine and that is why Georgian legion is one among the foreign legions”.

 For Dimitri Chitishvili Russia’s invasion of his country Georgia in 2008 is the reason he supports Ukraine in its war against Russia.  Born in Eastern Georgia, his education allowed him knowledge of several languages, he speaks and writes Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian and English but chose military as a career serving in Iraq, Germany and now in Ukraine.

 “My village has been occupied by the Russians since 2008. That time I was on a peacekeeping mission in Iraq. The start of military actions by Russia in Georgia prompted our immediate return to the country to join the fight”

 When Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula he was serving in Germany. Following Russia’s fullscale war in 2022  he says they were all waiting for Kyiv’s next move. When Zelensky announced that Ukraine would fight to the end, Chitishvilli made the decision to move into Ukraine and fight alongside “these brave people against our common historical enemy”.

Chitishvilli considers the defeat of Russia a personal benefit. 

“My personal benefit from this war will be the defeat of Russia, the de-occupation of my home, and returning to my native village in Eastern Georgia” He said adding  “For me, it is a very valuable and great success to be in the Georgian Legion, alongside brave fighters, and to participate with them in many successful operations”.

 For 37 year old Zurab, Ukraine is his second home because he is half Ukrainian, and insists he has “to live here forever”.

An officer of the Georgian Defense Forces, he was a platoon commander, serving for five years in an international mission in Afghanistan’s Helmand province and in the Kabul defense operation.

 Zurab told The Standard that he has been in Ukraine since December 2022, a proud member of the Georgian Legion. Earlier he served in the Ukrainian intelligence.

 During one of the operations a fellow soldier was blown up by a land mine and when Zurab ran to help him, within a meter of the heroic man he stepped on another mine that blew at his feet. He underwent four operations but lost his feet and now is aided by prosthesis feet.

 “After 6 months, I started walking, went through rehabilitation and can now walk 12 kilometers without casts”. Zurab says and adds “The military path is a worthy one that not everyone can go through. For me, all military men and women who spent at least one day at the front are heroes”.

 He insists that Ukraine will win the war and “we will soon see this victory”.