Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky established a new wing of the armed forces on Monday called the “International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine,” intended for foreign nationals who wish to come to fight in the country’s war against Russia.
Zelensky signed a decree creating the military wing on Monday and has lifted visa requirements for individuals who fit the requirements to join the forces. The initiative comes as reports indicate Russian leader Vladimir Putin may be planning a much larger military assault on the country after his initial push towards Kyiv failed.
Putin announced last week that he would recognize two territories in eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, as sovereign states and that the leaders of these “states” had requested the presence of the Russian military in Ukraine to fight Zelensky’s forces. Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and funneling support to the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively referred to as Donbas.
