Days after Ukraine announced that it would give visas to all foreigners willing to fight the Russian invaders, the first wave of foreign fighters arrived in the eastern European country on Thursday.

In a press conference streamed on Facebook, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the foreign fighters, saying, “Ukraine is already greeting foreign volunteers. [The] first 16,000 are already on their way to protect freedom and life for us, and for all.”

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While Zelensky did not specify whether the foreign troops had come from, it is possible to take an educated guess based on what we know so far.

Zelensky on Sunday had called for the formation of an “international legion” to fight the Russian invasion, and had assured that any foreigner willing to take up arms to defend Ukraine would be granted entry into the country without a visa and would be provided with weapons and ammunition.

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After Zelensky’s announcement, Reuters reported that dozens of Americans and Canadians had already signed up, or were planning to enlist in the Ukraine military to help fight off the Russian invasion. Several volunteers told the publication that they felt that their governments weren’t doing enough to help Ukraine, and many felt that the conflict in Ukraine was symbolic of an attack on democracy itself.

Following the announcement, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry also said that it had received “thousands” of enlistment applications, and reports suggest that foreigners from the US, UK, Canada, Japan, and Georgia, among others, are joining up.

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The addition of troops will indeed be of help to embattled Ukrainian defence forces and even civilians who are bearing the brunt of a full-scale Russian invasion.

It has been a week since the invasion began and Russian forces have already swept across Ukraine, besieging or capturing major Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv, Kherson, and Mariupol. The capital of Kyiv is also under siege from Russian forces, but Ukrainians are valiantly resisting Russia’s military might.