Foreign Volunteers in Ukraine Are Not Mercenaries and Ukrainian Resistors Are Not Terrorists

Contrary to Russian disinformation, international volunteers in Ukraine fighting against Russian aggression, are not “mercenaries.” They are not fighting for money, but self-finance their mission to defend Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Volunteers come from around the world, but certain people are particularly concerned about Russian aggression or Russian tyranny under Vladimir Putin, the ex-Soviet intelligence officer who is trying to reconstitute the Soviet Union. Chechens, Georgians, Moldovans, Belarussians, and other Eastern Europeans are among the most represented contingents. Also contrary to Russian disinformation, Ukrainian resistors in Russian Federation-occupied parts of Ukraine are not “terrorists,” but are engaged in a guerilla campaign against Russian military forces. Terrorists target innocent civilians to intimidate the populace to give into their demands, but guerillas target government targets in small-scale attacks, sabotage, etc. These ad hominem attacks are part of a pattern from Putin’s Russia, which has falsely been accusing the free representative republican Ukrainian Government of being “fascist.” Similarly, Russia labeled all Chechens as “terrorists,” just as they labeled all opponents of Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad as “terrorists,” and any opponent of Putin is dismissed as “criminals” or “foreign agents.” Russia continues to use these false labels because they are effective, not only because Putin does not tolerate an independent press, but also because the professional media in the West and around the world routinely repeat Russian propaganda and disinformation in order to give both sides of a story, although sometimes the story is only the false Russian claims. Putin has attracted supporters from not only the far Left that typically favors anti-American dictators, but also from far Right “nationalists” with his phony emphasis on sovereignty, while violating that of other States as he tries to restore the Soviet Union. His bitterness toward the West for winning the Cold War and his greed for Russian wealth are his main motivations, not any valid principles he pretends to uphold in order to gain domestic and international favor.