Foreign fighters in Ukraine await weapons in chaos of war

By SUSIE BLANN and ELAINE GANLEY
Associated Press

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — They are idealists who abandoned their jobs for the battlefields of Ukraine. They are looking for a cause or simply to fight. The Ukrainian president’s call for foreign volunteers to join an international brigade to help bolster his country’s defense with a new layer of resistance to Russia’s invasion is for now a ragtag army. Recruits say they are often waiting for weapons and training, leaving them feeling exposed. “Pure hell: fire, shouting, panic” is how Swedish volunteer Jesper Söder described Sunday’s attack on Yavoriv. A military training base in western Ukraine was pounded by Russian missiles that killed 35 people. Russia said the death toll was much higher.