Politic?: Awaiting Invasion

A military trainer with Ukraine’s 112th Territorial Defense Brigade works with civilians during a military exercise outside Kyiv on February 5. The Ministry of Defense created defense brigades in Ukraine’s main cities because of the risk of invasion by Russia, which is amassing troops at the border.

Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images

"We created this unit in 2014. Today, we are helping these civilians get basic training for a situation that could very easily occur soon."
"My first war [against Russia] was in the 1990s, in Abkhazia. My father was a general, so we were on the front lines together in that war, defending Georgia."
"We were taken prisoner and I spent three months in Russian captivity. My family history is entirely about fighting Russian imperialism."
"We have an arrangement with the Ukrainian military; once [an invasion] begins, [the Georgian Legion] will sign a contract and deploy to the front."
"Russian imperialism is a threat against the whole world. We fought it for the last 30 years in Georgia. I hope we will end it here."
Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander, Georgian Legion unit

"Right now we're teaching [the volunteers] to conduct a raid. We divide them into three groups. We show the first group how to do the exercise, then the next two groups can see where they made mistakes and improve on that."
"I served in the Georgian army for ten years. My first combat experience was 2008, when Russia invaded [Georgia during the South Ossetia War]. I also served in Afghanistan [with U.S. and NATO forces combating the Taliban]."
Levan Pipia, 32, member, Georgian Legion

A volunteer battalion from the Caucasus republic of Georgia trains Ukrainian civilians in urban combat tactics somewhere on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo by Neil Hauer

Over 150,000 Russian soldiers are known to be massed on the borders with Ukraine -- in Belarus to the north; the Russian-backed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics to the east in Ukraine's Donbas region; and in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. With thousands of military vehicles; tanks, artillery, infantry fighting vehicles and attack helicopters, Ukraine is under virtual siege, awaiting an invasion that now seems inevitable.

Simultaneously to NATO and the United States' ongoing warning of an imminent attack in the offing, volunteers from a battalion out of the Caucasus republic of Georgia have committed to being in Ukraine for the purpose of training Ukrainian civilians in the techniques and tactics involved in defending themselves in Ukraine's capital city, Kyiv who know nothing about urban combat tactics. The common enemy of the sovereign autonomy of both Ukraine and Georgia is one and the same, as former Soviet satellites.

Georgia has lost two of its territories to Russia's destabilizing interference, and Ukraine now is in danger of entirely losing its sovereignty to a Russia relishing returning it to the Soviet-era fold embraced by the Russian Federation, championed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, anxious to establish his legacy project with the reunification of reluctant eastern European nations.

February has seen the months-long military buildup encircling Ukraine unabated. Russia's military units from as far away as the Pacific Ocean have been shifted to take part in war exercises. It is estimated that up to 60 percent of Russia's total combat strength now lies along three sides of Ukraine. Moscow released an announcement several days back of completed manoeuvres which would return some forces to their bases. To which NATO cautions evidence of such withdrawals are nowhere to be seen.

The Georgian Legion composed primarily of fighters from the former Soviet nation, a 200 personnel-strong group, sees the situation as yet the latest move by Russia in a simmering war they have faced for over a decade. The group of trainees consists of about fifty Ukrainian citizens being trained in urban warfare by a half-dozen Georgian instructors. Most of the Georgian fighters received their training in combat, facing off to Russian forces in their own country.

Levan Pipia, 32, a native of the Abkhazian town of Ochamchira, was a refugee at age four, when Abkhaz separatists backed by Russia captured his hometown. In a typical drill, the Ukrainian volunteers are taught to lob dummy grenades. The results of which appear none too encouraging when poorly tossed grenades barely cover a few metres, reflecting the trainees' combat capacities. Women, on the other hand, aren't particularly known for their throwing style and capabilities.

The Georgian Legion boasts a small, but growing, contingent of foreigners from outside the Caucasus region in its ranks. Photo by Neil Hauer

Most of the Georgian fighters are from the Caucasus region. Even so, the Georgian Legion has in its midst a small, and growing contingent of foreigners in its ranks from elsewhere. A 24-year-old American among them, charged with helping the lead group of volunteers in a building-storming exercise. "I was in the French Foreign Legion, but I never deployed. They're pulling out of Mali, they're pulling out of central Africa, all deployments were halted", he confides.

His more recent presence in Ukraine? "Fighting against communism, fighting against the Russians [messing] around in everyone's country. Here is where the action is, and I think the Georgians can handle it", he says. Western intelligence is convinced that Kyiv would represent a major target of any Russian offensive, so the training that the Georgian Legion is offering could prepare the city's residents for living in a battlefield.

Should an invasion commence, Mamuka Mamulashvili envisions his fighting group back on the front lines, familiar to them from their initiation into combat with Russia eight years previously -- this time in Ukraine.