I Volunteered for the Ukraine Legion and Join the Fight Against Putin

There’s just one minor detail I forgot

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Drop of Light

I’m too old.

If there is a master villain for the first part of the 21st century, it has to be Russia’s, Vladimir Putin. This guy makes Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao Tse-Tung look like amateur evil-doers from a comic book.

As I’ve followed Putin’s insane desire to build his legacy for almost a year now, I’ve been appalled at his indiscriminate attack on civilians, cultural institutions, and medical infrastructure. It’s hard for me to justify, even if I am a citizen of a country that fried tens of thousands of people with an atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II.

Because of Putin’s crushing desire to leave behind a larger-than-life legacy, thousands of innocent people are dying in an unprecedented war. Millions worldwide are starving as Ukraine’s massive wheat shipments have been curtailed, and tens of millions of people are suffering in the coldest winter in years.

His private war in Ukraine tests NATO’s patience and resolve to avoid yet another European conflict, every day.

While visiting Poland this past year in November, I became obsessed with Putin’s Ukraine War raging just a few hours away across the Polish Border. My obsession led to rash decisions, and the hopeless romantic in me took hold.

It’s the romantic notion of the thousands of Americans who volunteered to fight in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War in 1936. George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and even Emma Goldman — all played a part in that drama, albeit on the losing side. And of course, my romantic notion also fails to remember that the Spanish Civil War was fought with WWI rifles instead of high-tech drones and missiles. And despite that, of the 35,000 or so volunteers, 15,000 didn’t make home in one piece. So much for romanticism.

Nevertheless, on the eve of the new year, I tried to enlist in the International League of the Defense of Ukraine. I figured, you have to die sometime and it might as well be for a cause.

My first stop was, of course, the internet. I went to the website internationallegion.org where I was met with the inspiring words:

Save the World. Stand with Ukraine. Freedom is a choice. Join the Brave!

My intense desire to help was, frankly, inspired by these words.

They even have a button for messenger apps that connects you with a live responder. I messaged my interest and included my recent 72-mile hike on the Camino in Spain as evidence of my fitness as a 69-year-old. And here is the response I got.

Hello Ken! Unfortunately, the cut of age for military service in the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine is 60. But there are plenty of NGOs working here in Ukraine supporting both the ILDU and the army. The one we work closest with is the International Legion Charitable Fund. Please visit their website internationallegionfund.org.ua for further information about them, if that is of interest to you. Happy New Year!

Yes. That minor detail about my age.

So I am on to plan B. I’m checking out the support website and I’m planning on returning to Gdańsk next October and heading across the border to volunteer for a month in Ukraine as a non-combatant.

I may be old. But I’m not useless.

But the whole age thing gave me pause for a moment to wonder at an important question. Why is the world so quick to push aside its old people? Perhaps we should all ask ourselves, “Wouldn’t it be better if wars were fought by the aged who have lived their lives rather than sacrificing a generation of young people every time the political dunderheads decide to start another war?”

Maybe we should all ponder that for a moment, whatever our age.