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Nathan Long had never fired a gun in his life before he volunteered to affix the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.
He was one among 1000’s of foreign recruits flooding into Ukraine’s eastern front last 12 months in anticipation of a Spring offensive from Vladimir Putin.
Now, the winter ice is beginning to thaw.
Soldiers from so far as Namibia, Colombia and Croydon have been tempted to prove themselves on the battlefield, going from concerned civilians to battle-ready rifleman earning £2,150 a month after just 4 weeks of gruelling training.
The 30-year-old south Londoner was one among them, signing up in 2024 to fight the war 1,500 miles away from his comfortable life as a roofer, where his major concern was the introduction of ULEZ.
Chatting with Metro, Nathan explains that his motivation was easy: to stop Putin in his tracks ‘before it was too late’.
He remembers watching clips of the invasion on the news, where handheld footage showed terrified civilian hiding from missile strikes, and felt enraged on the situation.
Despite having his hands full as a brand new father he couldn’t help his thoughts returning to Ukraine, and two years later Nathan finally made the choice to affix the frontline.
‘I’d slightly it said on my gravestone I attempted to do something slightly than tell my son I didn’t as missiles rain down on Europe,’ the dad-of-one explains. ‘It was hard to go away him but I needed him to know good people could make a difference.’
After a brief interview with a recruiter through WhatsApp, inside two weeks of applying, Nathan had left his son a number of personal mementoes and was on a plane to Kyiv for his medical.
He faced his first reality check spending his first night within the war-torn capital’s metro system cowering from Russian drone strikes.
‘Once I told my commander that I needed to eat, he made me strip’
His medical the subsequent morning was quick and straightforward. ‘The doctor literally prolonged my limbs, checked all of them worked after which passed me as fit to fight,’ Nathan remembers.
He was then handed a rifle and a flak jacket emblazoned with the Union Jack spliced with the Ukrainian flag by his latest commander and sent to a camp two hours outside of Kyiv.
Training was tougher than he imagined, admits Nathan. He was forced on 30km long marches carrying supplies until he nearly passed out.
‘Once I told my commander that I needed to eat, he made me strip and clean my rifle as a substitute, so I missed time for dinner,’ he explains.
Finally, he was served a plate of fish, pork and a boiled egg, his first battle was together with his stomach: ‘It was vile however it was food so I ate it – other than that fish.’
Fellow recruits included men from Zambia to Brazil, all learning together methods to spot Russian booby traps and reload a rifle – something Nathan initially struggled with resulting from his ‘short arms’.
The team bonded by spending -5C nights together sleeping in deep narrow pits they’d dug out – often known as foxholes – using one another for body warmth.
‘This stretch of forest was often known as the killzone’
Nathan’s very first injury got here soon after. Entirely self-inflicted, he slipped in trench training badly, dislocating his shoulder. After attempting to pop it back in himself – but making it worse – he was taken to a medical tent. He recalls two ‘decent’ Brits, a Scottish man and a ‘lad from Sheffield’ bought him ice cream to assist ‘soothe his throat’ as he recovered with handfulls of painkillers.
A 12 months on, Nathan is now a battle-hardened veteran. Losing close friends, he says has modified him as an individual.
He recalls his first encounter with Russian troops in a forest ambush on the Eastern front in Kharviv. It happened as the lads trudged through ‘2km of pure hell’ plagued by land mines, unexploded bombs and patrolled by camera drones.
Sending Metro gruelling first-person footage of the scene, you may see ice on the bottom and splintered trees, while Nathan rigorously navigates foxholes – many, he says, contain the stays of his blown-up friends.
Passing every one, Nathan gives a fast prayer after which advances.
Talking concerning the area, he adds: ‘This stretch of forest with the bodies was often known as the killzone, it was perfectly zeroed for the artillery they usually had Mavics (camera drones) continuously monitoring.
‘Once I finally made it back, I had a combination of emotions I used to be offended because I knew my friend Osiris was still on the market and the Russians would get his body.
‘But I used to be also completely happy because I knew nearly all of us made it out.’
Recalling his friend, who was blown up, Nathan adds: ‘He was a sound guy, brave and dependable. He asked me to introduce him to a pleasant English girl in the future.
‘He taught me the commands In Spanish and I still read our messages to assist me remember the words I actually have the last picture of him ever taken.’
No regrets
Asked if he has any regrets volunteering for a war so many miles away from his family, Nathan is adamant that he has none. ‘I actually have people here I’d consider family more so than my very own back home,’ he explains.
‘We’ve all got a dark sense of humour, even once we’re within the s*** we laugh and joke.
‘My favourite one was after I turned up at a Ukrainian position after being lost. They may only find the opposite guy who I got separated from. Our team leader had radioed me through as a code 200, as in I’m dead.
‘They were shocked after I got here back, I told them “you may only kill a spider with a slipper, not drones or artillery”. They simply checked out me like I used to be mad.
‘The soldier I used to be separated had survived in a small hole. He told me if I had gone in with him one among us would have died. It wasn’t large enough for each of us.’
Nathan doesn’t mind being named and pictured by Metro because he has been outed by TrackaNazi, a Russian-run Telegram account that doxxes Kyiv’s Western recruits, exposing their faces and social media. He explains that foreign fighter kills are valued highly and celebrated by Russian forces as battlefield casualties on each side approach two million.
Despite the goal on his back, Nathan’s focus stays on the duty in hand – although he adds that after months away, what he misses most about home, except for his son and sister is ‘a full English breakfast and an excellent cup of tea. I actually have the occasional parcel of Yorkshire Tea bags sent, but they run out so quickly.
‘Ukrainians have alright tea, but they don’t use milk and have a look at me like I’m crazy after I add it. It’s flavoured tea more often than not or coffee, but I don’t really like coffee.
‘I’ve tried to chill out with camomile but I can’t get into it. I should probably quit smoking too but I doubt it’ll be smoking that kills me first.’
On being welcomed by the Ukrainian people, Nathan explains that the response may be mixed. ‘They’re good, very hospitable. There isn’t a day I’d go hungry if I had no food, they wouldn’t allow it,’ he says. ‘There are some which can be pro-Soviet and don’t like us, but the bulk are nice.’
‘Western support has fallen in need of what is actually needed’
As a whole bunch of Russian air strikes pound Kyiv nearly day by day because the invasion in February 2022, Nathan doesn’t foresee an end to fighting and accuses the West of dithering as his friends die.
‘Western allies have offered support, but too often it has fallen in need of what is actually needed,’ he explains.
‘Delays and hesitation come at a terrible cost. I actually have lost quite a few friends on this war—people whose lives were stolen not by fate, but by aggression.
‘We fight drones now, not men with guns. I hope in the future that the remainder of the world won’t ever endure what now we have here.’
He hopes Putin is held accountable for his crimes in Ukraine and dreams of joining a friend in Cambodia for sentry work when the war is over.
Oleksii Bezhevets, a representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence recruiting unit who recruited Nathan, told Metro there had been a spike in British volunteers.
‘I prefer to look them in the attention and know their motivation. Some British fighters have had all the military training already within the UK but they arrive here to get real motion,’ he says.
‘They felt like they’d just been playing soldiers before coming to Ukraine.’
Nevertheless, the Foreign Office warns Brits travelling to Ukraine to fight, and even assist within the war, they might be prosecuted on their return to the UK in the event that they are consider to have committed criminal offences or posed a threat to national security.
A spokesman added: ‘The chance to life, or of maltreatment, is high.
‘The British Government’s ability to support you in these circumstances could be very limited. It cannot facilitate your departure from Ukraine, your medical repatriation, or termination of your military contract.’
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