‘It’s a strong bond’: Irish man Rory Mason one of thousands of foreign fighters to answer Ukraine’s call

Ukrainian servicemen walk past burnt civilian vehicles on a road near Izyum in the Kharkiv region, where Irishman Roy Mason was killed while fighting with the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine.

The International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine, for which Co Meath man Rory Mason (23) was fighting when he was killed in the Kharkiv region last week, was formed on the order of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy just days after the all-out attack began on February 24th.

In an address to “all citizens of the world, friends of Ukraine, peace and democracy”, Zelenskiy said that “anyone who wants to join the defence of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals”.

“Many westerners came with high expectations that they would be fully equipped as soon as they got here.

That didn’t sit too well with most of the guys, myself included,” said Robinson, who instead of heading to the front became a lead trainer for another international unit that is attached to Ukraine’s Georgian Legion, which was founded in 2014.

Mason was killed on September 28th in the Kharkiv region, where with stunning speed Ukraine liberated an area the size of Cyprus last month and seized dozens of tanks and other armoured vehicles and big ammunition stores that Russian troops simply abandoned as they fled

Dozens of international volunteers have already been killed in Ukraine, but if Zelenskiy was right, many more are likely to fall before the Kremlin is beaten