A foreign regiment that has been fighting Russian forces in Ukraine for two years has left hundreds of soldiers without a home to call home.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine is a force of Belarusian volunteers, officially known as . Kastus Kalinowski Regimentthe vast majority are men and women born in, and nationals of, Ukraine’s northern neighbor.
Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia and a supporter of the Kremlin’s attack on Ukraine, calls all Belarusians fighting on the side of Ukraine traitors and the “fascist” regime in Kiev. declared that he was a collaborator.
During a day of interviews with the Kyiv Post at a Ukrainian military training ground (regimental officials asked that the location not be published for security reasons), the regiment’s soldiers said that because of the Lukashenko regime, their homes and virtually all He said he had no choice but to sever ties. If I could, I would hunt them and their families down.
Almost all interviewees asked that their identities not be published. One rare exception is Daniel Olenius, 28, a former resident of Lekica, a town in the Gomel region. He said Belarusian authorities had been tracking Lukashenko for years as he protested his police state strategy and frequent visits to Poland. Olenius said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine left him with little choice but to support Ukrainians resisting Lukashenko and the Kremlin, which has sponsored repression in Belarus for more than two decades.
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“I have no connection or contact with my parents,” Olenius said. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to go home. What’s important now is to fight.”
Olenius joined the company in fall 2022 and served as a radio operator the following year. He said the most arduous and most rewarding job he performed was helping evacuate injured people. Orenius said the regiment is equipped with sufficient communications equipment, including NATO-issued radios. Now he is in the logistics industry.
The Kastus Kalinosky Regiment was formed in early March 2022 by 400-500 Belarusian volunteers who connected through social media and traveled to Ukraine to fight against Russian forces. At the time, it was a fierce urban battle, fought mainly around Kiev and the frontline towns of Bucha and Irpin.
According to the unit’s spokesperson, by early 2024, 56 Belarusian nationals had died while serving in the Ukrainian army, most of them while assigned to Belarusian regiments.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) has not published a formal organization or standardized equipment list for the perhaps dozens of small and medium-sized foreign volunteer units currently deployed by Kiev against Russia. Soldiers interviewed by the Kyiv Post said their contracts pay them standard AFU salaries. One of the fighters, a Frenchman, said that the Ukrainians’ salaries (if they were paid at all) were comparable to those in the Foreign Legion.
According to interviewees, the soldiers of the Belarusian regiment are not part of the official AFU units themselves, but are officially employed by the parent organization International Forces, which is managed and funded by the AFU’s Intelligence Directorate (HUR). That’s what it means. The missions of individual foreign units in the AFU vary widely from formation to formation, with some international units permanently assigned to regular AFU brigades, some small groups employed as specialized teams, and others specialized in specific wartime operations. organized as a conventional force armed and equipped by Kiev.
For AFU Kastus Kalinowski Regiment, the AFU armed the Belarusians along the lines of a NATO standard light infantry battalion, without heavy weapons like tanks or self-propelled artillery, but with man-carried weapons like the Franco-German Milan guided anti-tank missile. It had plenty of firepower. American and Belgian his M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun, and medium 120 mm mortar.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the AFU high command has almost always deployed Belarusians in hotspots heavily attacked by Russian forces, especially within towns and cities. In September 2023, during the fighting around Bakhmut, Belarusian infantry patrols were among the first Ukrainian forces to counterattack, containing a large-scale Russian offensive and capturing important high ground and a village called Kryschyvka.
In June 2022, the Belarusians were among a number of small infantry units deployed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces High Command in intense house-to-house fighting in the Donbas cities of Severodonetsk and Liszchansk over several months. During the latter battle, the regiment suffered heavy losses, including the battalion commander and regiment co-founder Ivan Marchuk. Before the Russo-Ukrainian war, Marchuk served in the French Foreign Legion.
Mark (Nomm de Guerre) is 43 years old and is the commander of a 120 mm mortar unit that has been part of the regiment since its creation. Like many long-serving soldiers, he started out as an infantryman. He told the Kyiv Post that the regiment was proud to be a hard-fighting unit, partly because no one could return to Belarus.
Mark said years of police raids and demands for bribes forced him to leave his successful business in Minsk. His wife was eight months pregnant at the time. Contact with relatives in Belarus is dangerous due to possible retaliation by the police.
“Our son was born a refugee,” he said. “No one knows when he will be able to come home.”
In comments in April, HUR senior spokesperson Andriy Yusov named the Kalinosky Regiment as one of the most effective foreign forces fighting for Ukraine today.
“This is a very efficient unit. They successfully carried out many operations and successfully completed many missions,” Yusov said in comments to the Belarusian communications think tank in April.of Kalinowski regiment…proved to be very good in terms of morale, motivation and fighting ability. This unit is an integral component of the Ukrainian Defense Security Forces. ”
The regiment’s working language is Russian, but some Belarusians interviewed by the Kyiv Post spoke fluent Ukrainian. Mark said weapons were available, but mortar shells “could be more.”
Partly to compensate for losses, and partly to strengthen the skills of its soldiers, the Kalinosky Regiment is currently forming a unit consisting of non-Belarusian foreign fighters. One of the recruits, a Polish national named Jula, served as a senior non-commissioned officer in the Polish army and then spent the next ten years working for a private military company, primarily in the field of combat engineering.
“I (as a Polish citizen) work very smoothly with Belarusians. We are all soldiers, we have the same profession and we approach our work almost the same way, so we usually look after each other. I understand,” Yura said. “But it certainly helps that Polish is very close to the language spoken within the regiment.”
A Frenchman who gave his name as Snow told the Kyiv Post that the unit seemed to be running smoothly, but that the recruitment process was slow and some soldiers had not received their salaries for two or three months.
Mr Snow told the Kyiv Post that he had traveled all over Europe and deserted the French Foreign Legion, but had been sitting at a training base for months doing nothing, without pay due to paperwork delays during the war. He said he was irritated by this.
A spokesperson for the regiment confirmed to the Kyiv Post that the salaries of the regiment’s new recruits have been delayed for more than a month, but that finances have finally been restored. The Kyiv Post asked HUR spokesperson for comment on the delay in salaries of foreign fighters. At the time this article was published, that request had not yet been responded to.
Details and background of the regiment in Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and English can be found here.
Screen capture of Happy Easter greetings recorded by Belarusian fighters of the Ukrainian army and members of attached Ukrainian units, April 2023. Video link is here: https://twitter.com/i/status/1647513521389809666
Ivan “Brest” Marchuk, leader of one of the two battalions of the Ukrainian light infantry formed from Belarusian volunteers, was killed in a house-to-house battle with Russian troops in the Donbas city of Liszchansk on June 26, 2023. did. tanks and cannons. Six other Belarusians were reported killed or captured in the fighting. Image published by Ukrainian news magazine Oboz.ua.
Belarusian fighters of the Ukrainian army attend the 2022 memorial ceremony. Image courtesy of Kastus Kalinoski Regiment.
Two Belarusian Foreign Legion fighters fighting on the Ukrainian side prepare M2.50 machine guns for use at a Ukrainian training range. Image released by the Belarusian Communication Center in April 2023.
