Pentagon warns Americans not to join Ukraine in war against Russia

Pentagon has warned American citizens not to join the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine as Russia sent troops into the neighbouring country in attempts to “denazify” and “demilitarize” it. 

Spokesperson John Kirby urged Americans to remain home and not join the war in Ukraine, Military Times reported. He said, “I don’t have an estimate of Americans who might want to be volunteering to go there. I would say what I said last week, if you’re an American and you want to do right by Ukraine, the best thing you can do is find a way to donate to so many agencies that are trying to deal with what is now clearly a humanitarian crisis in the region, and certainly there in Ukraine. We still do not believe that Ukraine is a safe place for Americans to go. We urge them not to go and if any are still there, we urge them to leave”. 

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The State Department also added in a release, as reported by Newsweek, that being “recruited or hired” to join a foreign military, while remaining in the US, might violate a decision from the Supreme Court. 

It said, “The Supreme Court endorsed a lower court ruling that it was not a crime under U.S. law for an individual to go abroad for the purpose of enlisting in a foreign army; however, when someone has been recruited or hired in the United States, a violation may have occurred”. 

As per Military Times, thousands of Americans have already signed up to fight against the Russian invasion. The legion was created by Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to bolster Ukrainian forces. They also have an official website up and running, which welcomes volunteers from all over the world, while specifically taking a dig at Russia. 

Zelensky had announced an initial batch of 16,000 fighters who’d already joined and Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Twitter that volunteers from the United States, Great Britain, Sweden, Lithuania, Mexico, and even India had joined in the efforts. 

However, Ukraine isn’t looking for volunteers who need to be trained. Officials have stressed that those with combat experience are preferred, Newsweek reported. 

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According to the media outlet, an officer in Ukraine commented, “We are asking for trained people to come. We don’t have time for training”. Meanwhile, the Military Times reported after interacting with the Ukrainian embassy in Washington DC, that the country received over 3,000 applications from people willing to fight, many of them war veterans.