Interview with Chris, member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces

This Matthew Parish from the Lviv Herald, and I'm extremely pleased today to be interviewing Chris, who's from Florida. And he's a member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And he's been kind enough to be interviewed today about his experiences in the Ukraine Armed Forces. And thank you, Chris, for coming. But the first question I want to ask you is about your background. Tell me something a bit- bit about your life before the war in Ukraine.

Well, thank you for having me. I started off with four years active duty in Marine Corps. In the United States Marine Corps, as a radio operator with artillery and then infantry. And then the next four years after that, I was a scout in the US Army. And I had secondary jobs as a machine gunner and basic rifleman. I came to Ukraine here just over three years ago now. I immediately joined the International Legion and I've been here ever since.

So what brought you to Ukraine? Why did you want to come and fight for this particular cause?

I had a friend in Kupyansk at the beginning of the war. A lot of Ukrainians would come over to Florida during spring and summer for summer jobs, and we kept up over the years. And when the second invasion kicked in, I lost track of all those friends. I later found out that they had actually been killed. And a lot of my friends that were serving in the Marines and the Army, and came over. They also joined Legion. They've been fighting for six months before I got here. And over time, I just fell in love with the country and I haven't left.

Just for the clarity of the readers, Kupyansk is a city in eastern Kharkiv Oblast, isn't it?

Yes, it is.

That city was occupied by the Russians at the beginning of the war. And they were then repulsed. And since then, it's been pretty much on the front line of the war and the focus of a lot of Ukrainian and Russian clashes.

Yes, it has. Kupyansk, since the very beginning, when we liberated it, has been in non-stop artillery barrages. It has taken non-stop missiles, glide bombs, and now currently, it's receiving a lot more, through small arms, machine gun fire and and even more bombs. The people there are amazing. They're absolutely amazing. They would help you with anything they could. And up until recently, they kept on living life like nothing had changed.

But Kupyansk itself is substantially destroyed, isn't it now? And there can't be many Ukrainians still living there in the city.

I don't know how many are still living there now. The last time I had been there was about a little over a year ago and the situation from then till now is drastically changed. If I had to guess, I would hope that any Ukrainian civilians that are still there are trying to leave or have made plans to leave because the way it is right now, it's the next zero line, it is the next major battle.

Tell me what procedures you went through to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the International Legion? That's the section of the Ukrainian Armed Forces which takes foreigners.

Yes. So the process for me was actually quite simple. It was to supply the International Legion headquarters with my discharge paperwork, in US military we call it DD214. Because I had multiple branches I gave multiple of my discharge paperwork. They looked it over, they ran background checks on me for both the US law enforcement and Interpol to make sure that I'm not a wanted criminal from anywhere around the world. They took copies of my passport. After that, they gave me a list of instructions of the easier ways actually to come to the country and all you have to do is literally just follow the instructions. They give you a list of everything you'll need, from basic necessities, that you can get here. It's usually just easier to bring some of the stuff with you, like, you know, like extra boots, boots, socks, underwear, things like that that are just everyday needed items. But all you have to do is give the information that they ask for. They run a background check, they give you a set of instructions of where to go, where to be and when. And then, from there you just show up basically and they process you, again, further to make sure that between the time they receive your background paperwork, your background checks, to the time you show back in the country that you're, again, are not a wanted criminal. And from there, that's it. Like you just go to the training base that they provide transportation to and then immediately your training starts, as soon as they, um, as soon as they receive you they provide you a contract assignment. And the contracts are internationally recognized. They fall under Geneva Convention. We are not mercenaries, as the Russian government likes to believe.

Did you have to go through several weeks of training? Because that's normal for people who join the Ukrainian Armed Forces without experience. Or was that... some of that waived because of your prior military experience?

It was actually a mix. So when I first joined the Legion, back in 2022, it was a completely different animal, so to speak. The training that was, uh, provided was very minimum, just because at that time, we had the advantage, we had the push. We were driving the Russians back further and further every day, to the point where sometimes we couldn't even keep up with our logistics because our actual stormtroopers and assaults were just going too far too fast. But now, yes, now you have several weeks, sometimes, several months depending on what kind of specialization you go for or what kind of unit you go for. But you do receive training here. The instructors constantly are being updated from different tactics that are along the front. We all keep in touch with each other overall and we want to make sure that the, uh, the new recruits that are coming in have the best advantage of survival and fighting as we can give them.

So after you received your training... And when, when was this by the way? This was mid-2022?

This was the end of summer 2022, yes.

And then you were assigned to a battalion?

Yes, I was assigned to a special purpose battalion. We focus on smaller teams.Smaller teams being hit and runs, ambush. If we know for a fact that we can take an objective, then we would do an assault just on our own. And the teams can vary in different sizes.

And what were the conditions like on the front? Can you say where you were on the front, or approximately where you were?

I was actually in several places. I've been to... I first initially started in the Kharkiv offensive, so I was in Kharkiv Oblast. Then we pushed into Luhansk at the end of that. I was there for that. And then we went south towards the Bakhmut direction.That was a total game change for me. I've never seen so much artillery and drones ever before up to that point. After that I went south further to, Zaporizhia, the eastern Zaporizhia front. After that I was in the western Zaporizhia front, and my most recent was in Sumy Oblast.

Compared to your experiences in the US Armed Forces, how would you organise... how would you describe working as part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces?

I love it. Honestly, I prefer working with the Ukrainian Armed Forces over International Legion because the Ukrainians, they don't have a choice to be here. So when they fight, they fight. Many foreigners don't always have that drive, they don't always have that will, don't always have the survival instincts. But with the Ukrainian Forces, when they fight, they fight. And many times, unfortunately, they have to fight to the very last man. And it hurts when you see the guys that you have been fighting with for months or weeks, or living with them, sleeping in the same trench with them. And when you hear that they're no longer with us, it hurts so much more because you knew those men. You knew how they fought, how they, how they lived. Sometimes you even know their families. So, you know, if you ever get the chance, always go with Ukrainian Forces because it's... you feel so much more.

So, so you joined units which were full of Ukrainians.

Yes.

... rather than the units which were primarily full of foreigners?

Yeah, I've done both. I started off with the International Legion where it was exclusively foreigners with Ukrainian officers in charge of us. And I later on switched to the [regular] Ukrainian Armed Forces. And honestly, I love working with the Ukraine Armed Forces every day of the week.

You've been injured more than one time. Tell me about the injuries you've suffered and how they, how they came about your experiences.

Yes, you're right, I have been wounded numerous times. I personally stopped counting at nine because double digits just seems very depressing to me. The worst ones I've received, I had a tank shoot at me. The round exploded behind me, threw me down a flight of stairs, and I ended up taking shrapnel to the left side of my hip and was embedded inside my pelvis. When I was going through surgery, that lasted, I think, like four or five hours, maybe longer, because the shrapnel itself was stuck inside my bone. And when the surgeon went in, he had to be extra careful because, we found out that the end of the shrapnel that was exposed outside the bone was pressed against my artery and it had been scratching against that for, I think, three days at that point. That wound was extremely lucky. Another injury, or another of these worse injuries I should say, was... I was hit by, what's called a AGS.... that's a Russian automatic grenade launcher platform.

With the Russian AGS, it's a 30 millimeter grenade, shoots the exact same as far as [where you are]. That one, that one got me pretty good. I was down for about two, two and a half months, with receiving shrapnel in both my legs and my face. The worst of it was having a very large hole in the top of my thigh where it left my femur exposed. That was not fun. I hyper-extended my left leg before where my toes were actually pointed towards my face. My knee had actually done a full 90-degree,reverse where it was pointed towards me in the direction it should not be pointing. That one I still suffer pain from even to this day. Because I was not a medical professional I thought I could just plop it back in, so straighten the leg out. Not a good idea. I ended up passing out from the extreme amount of pain. Yeah, so any kind of, any kind of critical medical injury you have, don't do it yourself. Not unless it's some kind of battlefield treatment you can do, like a tourniquet or packing a wound, stuff like that. But if it's something extreme like, your leg is 90 degrees in the wrong direction, let a real medical professional handle that one.

Can you tell me about the CASEVAC procedures on the front line? I've heard stories of long delays. Indeed, I've experienced them, I've seen them myself. How did you find CASEVAC?

It actually varies, from unit to unit and from area to area. Sometimes, both Legion and, [regular armed forces] are able to MEDEVAC you within under an hour, just because they have people in the area that are able to do it - if the area is not extremely hostile to MEDEVACs or CASEVACs. And then I've been to areas where, depending on the injury, they couldn't be received by MEDEVAC for multiple days just because the area was just too intense. Any attempt to getting medical vehicles out there to actually MEDEVAC you I say would have been a hazard to both the driver, the medical crew, the vehicle itself, which that on its own is not a reason not to send them help. But we also have to think about everybody else that were, uh, that medical crews are providing for. So sometimes it's just not possible. And other times you can be out of the area and go into a stabilization point in under an hour. So it varies greatly. And the equipment also varies greatly too. Now we have ground-based drones that we can load our wounded onto. Where the only person you have to really worry about is the injured. And we also have all kinds of other vehicles ranging from M1113s from the U.S., Sentinels from Canada, we had a couple of very large bridge vehicles, I think they're called Mastiffs. We've had those here and with those things, when, as soon as you get in, you feel like, okay, everything's perfectly fine, no need to worry. But sadly, that's not just always the reality of the case. Like sometimes you can get hit, again, even inside the medical vehicles.

So MEDEVAC is really a question of keeping the evacuation personnel safe as much as keeping the casualty safe, because of the danger of the position you are, depending on what, depending on where you're injured. If you're on the zero line, getting medical personnel onto the zero line safely and out with you isis difficult and risky.

It can be, yes. Many of the MEDEVAC teams, more often than not, they will just say, "Okay, give this location," and they'll go out regardless of what the situation is. Unfortunately, by doing that, the risk for themselves actually jumps up, I'd say at least 100 fold just because now they are the biggest, fastest, loudest moving target for the Russians.That actually hurts about the same as hearing that you lost the guys that you've been fighting with for months or years, because you know those people that are coming to get you, they were literally trying to go through hell just to come to get you. And when you hear that they were hit and they didn't survive, that really tears your heart out because they would again go through absolute hell or, and they probably were, just to save you, your friend, your brother, anybody. So yeah, it's an extreme risk for them. But many times they will just do it anyways. And unfortunately, they, sometimes they have to pay the price for it.

What's the quality of medical care like at the stabilisation points and then later on other hospitals? Since you've seen, since you've been injured so many times, you've probably got a very good impression of quality of...... medical care for casualties on the [front line of] the war?

Well, I can start with the initially the beginning of the war, or my beginning of the war, 2022. It varied actually a great way. Sometimes you would get people that were grossly under-qualified for the job and profession they were put into. And they had to basically just make do with whatever they had, whatever skills they had. Sometimes I witnessed some of the medical carers using YouTube to teach them how to do stuff because the beginning of the war was just absolutely crazy. Now it's completely different, 180 degree different animal. We have multiple stabilization points between your front line, your first line guys all the way up to the hospital where they will finally, um, uh, start your final treatment and recovery.

And how are the quality of the surgeons and the personnel staff in the hospitals where you'll be treated?

Now? They're great. The amount of experience they didn't have a choice in in receiving, has gone through every roof you can think of. Like it's... the learning curve was just exponential. Now we have almost every modern piece of medical equipment you can think of, that... and even some that, are actually being made here in Ukraine, like a great example is we have mobile live or real-time X-rays where they perform surgery. You [the surgeon] don't have to just go in blindly. That one, I don't know if it was made in Ukraine, but I have witnessed that multiple times and I've actually had it used on myself. The equipment comes from everywhere around the world. Some is a little bit older and some is coming right out the manufacturer. So it varies, but the amount of equipment that we use is just exponential and keeping everybody that we can stay alive recover if that is possible. And the surgeries and the treatment plans are about as top-notch first, like top-tier quality you can get in a constant non-stop war.

Do you speak Ukrainian?

I picked up some, yes. I... didn't really have much of a choice just because, whoever you're with might not be internationals that speak English. Many Ukrainians here are learning English. This because of the amount of foreigners come over here and English being the most common language involved. So yes, I have had to speak or learn some Ukrainian and... but that also is a huge benefit too, just because like tactfully speaking, you know, you have to be able to communicate to the person to your left and right. So learning Ukrainian, I would say that you should definitely 100% learn, even if it's just the basics, like say hello, goodbye, good evening, left, right, your numbers, directions, stuff like that.

How do you think foreigners are treated as members of the Ukrainian armed forces compared with Ukrainians? Is there a level playing field or are you treated better or worse?

I would say we're generally treated better overall, just because, Ukrainians, well, it's a very finite number. And every day we have fewer and fewer Ukrainian soldiers. So, most time, I would say foreigners are treated much better because word of mouth through foreigners spreads like wildfire. Like one day they're... in your entire brigade might only be you as a foreigner, two weeks later, you've seen how they operate, how they train, the equipment they have, how they actually treat their own soldiers. So two weeks later, word of mouth, next thing you know, you might have 30 other foreigners just show up and say, "I want to join" just because of that one person. So I would say overall, we're treated much better.

How would you assess the state of the front line, uh, at the current time? I mean, there are reports daily about troop movements and attacks and defences and territory being taken or retaken. But there's also a sense that it's just a stalemate because the front line hasn't really moved very far since the Russian evacuation of Kherson in November 2022. Would you agree that we're in a stalemate situation or how would you describe the state of the front line now?

I would say yes, it's more or less a stalemate. In different areas, either Ukrainian forces or the Russian forces retake ground. Whether it be counter assaults, assaults. So some areas are very extremely fluid and every day you might go forward five kilometers just to have a counter assault push you back, uh, three kilometers. So different areas, yes, extremely fluid. And then other areas like- you mentioned Kherson, that's actually a great example. That really... that area is a stalemate because of the river. It's very hard to get forces back and forth across that river because of drones. Drones are constantly going up and down spotting any boats that are potential targets. So yes, some areas extremely stalemate.

Tell me about the evolving nature of frontline warfare in light of technological improvements in drone warfare on both sides.

So when I first got here, you're lucky for us at that time, to have one or two drones as a drop ordinance or explosives on us a week. That was it. So I think compared with now, it could be for hours at a time, non-stop every day. And the different types of drones has grown exponentially as well. Before, it was Mavic and Autels. Now, it's if you can build it, you can dream it, you can afford it, you can build it. You can have as many drones as you want, and different sizes and different speeds. So the software that comes with it is absolutely crazy. I can't go into detail about what they can do and what they cannot do, but it's compared to what it was three years ago is absolutely insane.

When I last went to Pokrovsk, which was a few months ago, it was very dangerous to drive into the city. You took back roads and drove at high speeds constantly looking for drones. Whereas in central Pokrovsk, it seemed fairly quiet, reasonably safe, and there weren't drones buzzing overhead. Is that what it's like for the bigger cities, the Russians just don't have the capacity to strike everything that moves with drones? Or what is the strength of the Russian drone capacity in preventing movements of civilians and military people around frontline areas?

Again, that's another area-dependent question. I would say a good example would be Pokrovsk. It's drones, everywhere, right? You can't move two meters without being spotted by a drone. And then other areas, like, I guess, southern or central Zaporizhia, it's a lot easier to move around just because of the terrain by itself. But as far as numbers go, it varies. Some areas are just so saturated with drones that you can't move a single meter without being spotted. And then other areas, if you know the land, you know the terrain, all the features that go with it, then you can get away with being able to move several kilometers a day. But not in numbers, because numbers will always get spotted. So it really depends on where you're at.

I've heard there's a kill zone or a gray zone, which are parts of the front line which- where effectively the parties are separated by an area, simply because of drone saturation. And they- they can't get that close to each other because soon as they try to move, they're at serious risk of drone attack. Is that the reality?

So the gray zone is a- what- what you call in like a World War I would be no man's land. It is that area in between your opposing first line defenses of just nothing is there. You might have, uh, reconnaissance and scouting parties that go out, um, to probe, see where the weakest points are. But typically, both sides will see and notice those people very fast. That's not to say it doesn't have success. It just it's very limited on that one. But the area itself in the gray zone? No, what the amount of drones that go in and out, uh, even past it into- further into both sides' first line and second line because of the software and technology we have, there's nowhere really quite safe. Um, I've seen, Russian drones go almost 30 kilometers past their own first line into our- our held territories. So even as far as something like that, you're not even quite safe because maybe that drone might only be there for purely reconnaissance and surveillance. But you're not going to be sitting there and watching it trying to see what it actually is. All you're going to hear is, "Oh, there's a drone. Well, we don't have a reason to be flying this far back, so that is definitely Russian. Let's try not to be noticed or try not to be seen," because there's no reason to take a risk like that.

Do these Russian drones extend even to the the rear of what we call the frontline rear where the safe houses are, where soldiers, rotate back, for a calm period? Can they get that far?

Sometimes, yes. That is largely dependent on the Russian drone unit. Some are better funded than others. Some only get the bare minimum, where many times they're having to supply the materials for building, for repairing the drones themselves. And other times, they're just such a top-notch or top-tier drone team or drone unit, whatever you want to call it, that they can fly easily the- only to your safe house that could be 20 plus kilometers away. So it really is dependent on the unit.

How would you compare the Ukrainian and Russian armed forces' abilities and standards, or strength? Let me make it an open question. Who has the stronger forces on the front line and why?

Honestly I would go with the numbers game and say that overall, the Russians have the better advantage over us, because they have more, they have more people, they have more men. They've been planning this for over a decade at least, so... And numbers wise, yes, they are much, much stronger than us. As far as the training we go through, whether it does not matter if you're a foreigner or a Ukrainian soldier. The training we go through, in order to prepare ourselves and others, is far, far superior. That goes from weapons handling, different tactics, how to just do movements on your own. Even something as simple as how to pack your bags. Generally, we, we take that, all that extremely serious, because one man less can hurt you in ways that you can't even imagine,whether it's because you know them, their own specialty, their background experience, maybe their ability to learn new things. So when it comes to, like, training wise, Ukrainian forces far, far better than the Russians in that case.

I've also heard reports that the Russians don't take care of their casualties, and therefore there's a much lower ratio of casualties to deaths. In other words, if you get injured on the Russian side, uh, you're much more likely to die than you are on the Ukrainian side, because of superior MEDIVAC. Is that something you can comment upon?

Yes, that is 100% true. Russian forces typically if they see you as obsolete, a waste, not worth it, then more often than not, they will actually execute their own soldiers, because it's not worth the hassle of trying to evacuate your own soldiers. Ukrainian forces, if we are able to- you're getting out of there. You are going to a stabilization point. You're gonna be treated. If the area is just too hot and heavy where we cannot, that doesn't mean we're going to throw you outside and we're gonna let you die. No, we're going to do our absolute 100% best to make sure that you survive. Whether that means going through half your medical supplies of, like, your own medical supplies to make sure the man next to you or woman, survives, then we'll do that. Like, I personally, I have gone through that. I've got to the point where I kept the bare minimum medical supplies for myself that on the offbeat chance that I might get wounded, and everything else that I was able to give up, I gave it up to the other guy I was helping treat.

Now you're going through a session of recovery from current injuries, and then you're planning to go back to the frontline to fight again.

Yes.

Do you have any doubts or did, would you, would you like to just go back to Florida, or do you want to keep... Wwhat's your motivation level at this stage after being injured so many times?

At this point, uh, Ukraine's my home. Very soon I'll be applying for Ukrainian citizenship, just because I, I love the country here. I love the people, I love the country. I have, I don't really have much, urge or yearning to go back to the United States. So being here is, you know, it's everything I could have, want from this war. As far as med or, you know, the medical stuff, you get injured and then you recover. That'a it. You just do it. Some guys or, and women, they are injured and it's sometimes just not physically possible for them to stay, at least not in the capacity once [they were at]. Like there's always a position in the rear to where, no matter what your injury is, that we can somehow accommodate you to make you useful to the war effort. For me personally, it's, I just do it. I've been doing this for what, three years now. It's just, yeah, it hurts, it sucks, but you do it and you just go right back to it, because there's always somebody that, uh, might need your help, or, maybe you might not live with your, be able to live yourself afterwards, because like, well, it was tough, I gave my all and I just can't do it.

How's your mental health now having been wounded so many times, having lost so many friends, in what seems to be a non-stop war? Do you feel strong and you're willing to go back to the struggle? I mean, does it grind down on you to the point where you get sleepless nights or worse?

Yes. There are days where it, you just feel the absolute worst of depression you could ever have. And then there are some days where it's, where you just go like, oh yeah, so we lost, soldier 123 and Soldier ABC. You know, they gave their all, and unfortunately they are dead. But that doesn't mean that I can give up because they're gone, you know. You use that as motivation, you use that as an internal, like, fire to keep you going. When the nights are cold, you keep that fire going in you and it warms you. The hatred that you have of not being able to do more to save your own people to save others, to be able to fight it keeps you warm at night. It keeps you motivated, it'll keep you going. You don't lose the drive, completely, but when the days that are really become bad and they are dark-... then you have to remember why you are here, why you're here, what you're doing. And for me personally, I'm not ashamed to admit it, I constantly am in communications with a therapist to keep my mental health as high as possible. Days where it's just bad and I really need some kind of recovery, I talk to a therapist. And there are dozens, if not hundreds, of therapists all over Ukraine that are specializing in, uh, in just, uh, soldiers. So, as far as your mental health goes, if you're finding a reason why you can't do it, I highly encourage you just to talk, whether it be to a friend, family or a therapist, just to keep your mental health as high as possible.

You say you're driven by hatred. I mean, do you hate the Russian soldiersyou're fighting against?

Absolutely, yes. Not in the point of, like, I personally hate every single one of them. I hate what they are doing here, I hate what they have done. I've hate what the- I've seen them do to my friends. Not military friends, but civilian friends. I have a actual deep hatred for the Russian Armed Forces. That doesn't mean that just because I hate them, doesn't mean I, won't help a surrendered soldier. No, it's if you're a combatant, I'm going to fight you because you are a combatant. If you are surrendering, you are no longer a combatant. I might not like you, but it doesn't mean I have a hatred for you anymore just because you decided you don't want to fight more and now you want to surrender. That, you are a prisoner, you are totally off limits to anybody. And the stories that come out of saying, "Oh, we, you know, we execute soldiers. We, uh, we torture the Russian soldiers." No, we don't do that. We do not do that.

So, soldiers who surrender are arrested and then held, taken as prisoners of war?

Yes. The process for that varies, but it always starts with the soldier surrendering. It always starts with them. From there, now we have different protocols, different systems in place for searching the soldier, going from weapons to explosives, all the way down to identifying markers, like tattoos on them, to any identifying documents, like their own military IDs. We collect everything. From there, as soon as we're able to, we evacuate that soldier. If they need medical attention, then they are Medevaced first. And then the entire time that they are receiving medical attention, they are held under armed guard, because people go crazy. This war will just jar you out of every kind of, uh, rational mindset you have. So unfortunately, we do have to keep prisoners under armed guard while they're receiving medical support or if they're just being questioned, interrogated. After that, they are taken to a military prison forprocessing into the prison systems. But during no time that do we hit them, do we beat them, shoot them, torture them. We don't do that. That, that is my principles, even though I have a hatred for the Russian military, that to me is disgusting. We, we don't do that. We are better than all the horror stories come out 'cause if we're not better than that, then why are we fighting? Why do we take soldiers at all?

Can I ask you where is this war going? What's your assessment of how long it will last and what, what it will take for the war to come to a conclusion? And what sort of conclusion are we going to find when the fighting finally stops? Because all wars do come to an end eventually.

Yeah, to be honest- I have no idea. Iinitially I would've said, when we first had the advantage in 2022 and 2023, I would have said like, "No, maybe one or two years of hard pushes like that, war would have finished." Well, now it's three years later and I honestly, I have no idea where this war's gonna go. I don't know what kind of peace talks that could happen. I don't know what kind of major pushes that can happen, assaults. I... Right now, it's so much is unknown and so much is a mystery that no one can really accuratelygive any kind of estimates. And anything, regards of, um, uh, different frontline areas different pushes. It's just, we don't know and I- I'm not even gonna try and speculate just because it's evolved so much.

This Friday, the 17th of October, President Zelenskyy is meeting President Trump in the White House and there's a lot of speculation and signaling by the US government that the US Department of War may be prepared to provide Tomahawk, that's medium-range, subsonic cruise missiles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Do you think that might be a game changer?

I don't think it'd be a game changer so much. While it would provide us a huge advantage, just in having the various munitions, that are gonna be possible for us with Tomahawks. The technology on itself is quite old, but with constant updates you can modify that and to do almost anything you need or want within reason. I would like for it to happen, I don't... I really don't try to get into, you know, heads of state on what they might be thinking, what they might be doing because again, everything is such a mystery to, the amount of unknown variants and elements that come into play, that it's... I would prefer just to sit and watch and then react accordingly. Whether it be increase the amount in munitions, decrease, just give, trying to... changing to different munitions and weapons systems. That... Stuff like that, I would like for it to be a game changer but I don't see it as one.

Are there any word, final words you'd like to, uh, offer to a person, a foreigner, considering coming to fight for the Armed Forces of Ukraine?

Oh, that's a lot. Before you come here, make sure that you have all your affairs in order, whether it be for any kind of bills you have, anything you have to take care of, you know, back home. Make sure you have that taken care of months in advance. Living wills, power of attorneys; make sure you have all that done before you get here, because unfortunately, as soon as you come here, in the aspects of being a soldier, your survivability is 50/50 at best. So make sure you have everything sorted before you even come close here. And then as soon as you step foot in this country, and with your intention of being a soldier, accept that you will die; whether it be now, years from now or, you know, as soon as you step foot. Because, the Russian long-range strikes from drones, the glide bombs, missiles, you never know what could happen and it could happen literally anywhere in the country. Proof of that is looking at the nightly air raids that happen. And it's not just on the the eastern front, it's not on the southern front, not just on major cities along the border. It is the entire country that you can be killed. So make sure you come here with clear conscience, right state of mind, you have all your affairs in order, and that you accept that you might ultimately die.

Chris, I'd like you to thank you for this very comprehensive interview and your insights into fighting for the Ukraine Armed Forces against the Russian invaders. And I'd like you to thank you for your service towards Ukraine. You're a hero of Ukraine. Slava Ukraini.

Heroyam Slava.