Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 started one of the most well documented conflicts in human history, but far from the media spotlight, there is a lesser-told story of volunteers who travelled to fight on Europe’s eastern flank, writes Matt Hasdell…
Dulwich author Colin Freeman’s latest book, The Mad and the Brave, brings stories from the so-called ‘Legionnaires’ to life.
Stories of the volunteers’ lives before the war, all the way through to front line action, uncover the motivation of these individuals to go to such lengths to defend a country which, in a lot of cases, they had never previously set foot in. Ranging from highly experienced military operators to those who had hardly held a gun before, the book describes the stop-start nature of wartime through the eyes of those involved, the reality of being “cannon fodder” to sceptical Ukrainian generals, and the internal unrest between conflicting personalities and nationalities in the Legion.
Freeman is a seasoned foreign correspondent who has covered conflict from Iraq to Somalia. While reporting on the Russo-Ukraine war for The Telegraph in Kyiv, he came up with the idea for his latest book.
I sat down with him over a glass of wine to delve into why he wrote The Mad and the Brave, the challenges involved, and his near-death experience involving a pizza restaurant and a well-timed phone call.
Where did the idea for the book come from?
“I’d been sent to Ukraine by The Telegraph as a sort of extra pair of hands. This was in the run-up to the war, and everybody at the time thought it was going to be a bit of a damp squib, that Putin was maybe going to send a few tanks in to some bits of eastern Ukraine that he’d already occupied and make a great song and dance, and that would be it.
“So, I was initially sent to Lviv to hang around and do a couple of stories in case there were refugees coming back and forth. And so I flew in on the very last flight to Lviv, on the night of the 23rd [February 2022] – and the war started on the 24th.
“I was woken up by a colleague in Kyiv. He said ‘the war, it’s f*ing started’. And this is big grown-up warfare. This is Uncle Vlad and his superpower army. That first week was quite scary because you just had no idea what Putin was capable of unleashing. It was quite hard getting to sleep at night.
Relatedarticles
“On about day three, Zelenskyy [President of Ukraine] said ‘I’m inviting foreign volunteers to come in [to fight for Ukraine]’. I’m thinking it’s partly a show, a PR stunt. But sure enough, within about 10 days, there were reports of these people coming by train to Kyiv. Most of them were keeping a fairly low profile, a few giving interviews because they were clearly quite keen to show they want to stand up and do what is right for democracy. And at that point, it struck me that it would be a good way of doing a book about the war. Readers would get a further level of engagement if it’s told through the eyes of fellow Westerners.”
What were the biggest challenges?
“Getting [the fighters] to overcome their distrust of journalists, which a lot of soldiers have. And then the other real challenge is getting them to describe what goes on in battlefields – they are a bit like football matches, there is stuff going on all the time.
“The other thing is that they are not engaged in amazing, intense firefights every day. It tends to be one very serious episode where it hits the fan. And the stories have a habit of ending abruptly. There is a bit at the beginning of the book which says to readers that people’s stories peter out here and there, and this is why. A narrative of one single fighter or single group would not work in all practicality. And then some people have fascinating backstories, but then nothing spectacular happens to them in the war.
“There is also trying to pick people who could narrate different theatres of the battle, whether it’s the fighting in Mykolaiv or the siege of Mariupol, or people’s experience upon coming home and dealing with their families, trying to knit that all together.”
I heard you had a near miss yourself in Ukraine, can you tell me about that?
“My translator and I were in a city called Kramatorsk, which is out in the east of Ukraine and is the main frontline city for the Donbas area [a major target region for the Russian invasion]. It’s the place where a lot of soldiers on the front lines would go for R&R. Most of these places have a few restaurants still open. There was a place called the Real Pizza Restaurant, which was popular with civilians, journalists, diplomats and aid workers – most war zones have a hub like that.
“We’d had a long day, and we got there about 7pm. We were sitting browsing the menu, when we got a phone call from a military contact that we’d been trying to get hold of for a week. He said I’m in Kramatorsk for the next hour, if you want to come and meet me you need to get your skates on. So we thought we’d better go and see this guy.
“So off we go, and we’re sat on the other side of town interviewing him and one of his mates at half seven. And then suddenly there’s this big, loud bang from somewhere distant.
“When we finished the interview 20 minutes later, the guy said the missile sounds like it landed somewhere near where you’ve just come from. So we go and check it out.
“We got there and the restaurant was completely destroyed. [Russia] had fired an Iskander at it, which is a big, 20-foot-long missile. I think it killed 15 people, injured 60. I remember thinking, that’s 28 minutes after we left – so could we have ordered, eaten pizza, had coffee in 28 minutes? I very much doubt it. We saw the manager who we’d been chatting to getting pulled out on a stretcher. It’s terrifying. It’s like, hang on, we should have been in here.”
Watch Freeman’s report in the aftermath of the explosion on Youtube.
You can buy Freeman’s new book, The Mad and the Brave, by following this link.
You can also learn about his kidnapping by Somali pirates in Kidnapped, where he was kept in caves for six weeks, as well as his other work here, which I would seriously recommend.
