Strolling round Kyiv in his new Ukrainian navy apparel, Igor Volobuyev felt as if he lastly fulfilled his goal.
For weeks after leaving Russia for Ukraine, the previous vice-president of Gazprombank spent his days making an attempt to persuade officers to offer him with Ukrainian paperwork and permit him to join navy service to struggle in opposition to a rustic the place he had spent most of his grownup life.
“The second battle broke out, I knew immediately I needed to go and defend Ukraine,” Volobuyev mentioned in an interview within the Ukrainian capital.
“I first needed to affix the territorial defence models within the Sumi area, the place I grew up. I reached out to loads of officers however legally it was not doable for me to struggle there as a Russian.”
Quickly, nevertheless, Volobuyev was offered with the choice to affix the “Freedom for Russia” legion, a particular navy unit that’s a part of the Ukrainian armed forces and is made up fully of Russian nationals.
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He mentioned he embraced the prospect with open arms, and on Saturday in a video handle, Volobuyev, holding an computerized gun, introduced that he had joined the legion.
“I’m very glad I’ve achieved my first objective. However now I’ve to shortly endure navy coaching so I can truly go and struggle. I can’t cease midway,” he mentioned.
The 50-year-old has Ukrainian roots however holds a Russian passport and lived most of his life in Moscow the place he turned the vice-president at Gazprombank, Russia’s third-largest financial institution which is owned by power firm Gazprom. He was one in every of a handful of high-profile Russian defectors who condemned the battle.
Now, his resolution to take up arms in opposition to Russia is one other twist in a outstanding story. His public defection had already brought on shockwaves given his senior position in an organization that’s on the coronary heart of the Russian institution and is chaired by Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, who’s near Vladimir Putin.
“I made compromises with myself for a very long time … However on the 24 February [the day Russia launched its invasion], any speak of compromise turned inconceivable,” he mentioned. “I couldn’t be a part of this crime.”
Not a lot is understood in regards to the Freedom for Russia legion that Volobuyev joined. News of its formation was introduced on Telegram on 12 March and a few of its members – carrying balaclavas – held a press convention in Kyiv in early April. On its Telegram channel, it regularly publishes photos of its members engaged in navy preparations.
“I used to be already identified to the general public so I may communicate out,” mentioned Volobuyev. “However for the opposite members and their households, it is rather harmful to speak about this, so the group may be very secretive.”
Volobuyev declined to say what the scale of the legion was and the place it has been combating, citing navy secrecy, however added the unit was regularly engaged in energetic combating.
He harassed that the unit was “not a gaggle of mercenaries” however an official a part of the Ukrainian armed forces and subsequently, if captured, the troopers must be handled underneath worldwide humanitarian regulation.
The unit’s official badge is displayed on Volobuyev’s uniform. The white and blue flag is utilized by Russian anti-war protesters each inside and out of doors the nation. It mimics the design of the Russian flag however with the crimson band modified to white to take away the affiliation with “blood and violence”, Volobuyev mentioned.
Whereas Volobuyev’s most important motivation for choosing up arms was to defend Ukraine, which he described as his “solely motherland”, he mentioned many of the Russians within the legion have been in search of regime change in Moscow.
“From what I’ve already seen, it’s a group of extremely motivated Russians who consider that defeating Russia now’s the one solution to create a democratic, civilised nation,” he mentioned.
Artyom (not his actual title), one other member of the unit, mentioned he joined “as a result of it was the one probability to eliminate this regime” and had been engaged in opposition politics in Russia earlier than leaving the nation in 2020.
He mentioned he moved to Ukraine shortly earlier than the battle, sensing an imminent Russian assault. “I really like my motherland,” he mentioned. “I want it didn’t have to return to this, however now we have to finish this method. I hope I can return house after the battle.”
Some Russians have discovered different methods to contribute to Ukraine’s navy efforts.
Quickly after the battle broke out, Maxim Motin, a former native opposition deputy in Moscow who has lived in Kyiv for the final 4 years, shortly arrange a number of manufacturing traces to make physique armour vests and helmets for the Ukrainian military.
“Particularly within the early days of the battle, there was an enormous demand for physique armour. Now we have revamped 700 vests thus far and lots of helmets,” Motin mentioned in a cellphone interview from the western Ukrainian metropolis of Lviv, the place he coordinates manufacturing of the military gear.
For years, Motin mentioned he needed to vary Russia from the within by way of politics, however he mentioned he was compelled to finally flee the nation in 2018 after threats from the Russian safety companies.
Now, he mentioned, he didn’t assume twice about supplying navy gear to assist the Ukrainian military in its struggle in opposition to his homeland.
Motin mentioned the authorities in Moscow had lately opened two prison instances in opposition to him for his help of Ukraine, together with the intense cost of terrorist financing.
“I don’t affiliate myself in any respect with the bloody regime in Russia and everybody who helps the battle,” Motin mentioned. “I consider Russia must lose, on the battleground.”
