![]() ![]() I thought it was remarkable, and I was curious why these men would go from France to fight in Donetsk for the Russians. They were anti-liberal, anti-LGBT, and anti-socialist. For them, every war was a proxy war one side was always just the US by another name. They were talking about why they’d gone to fight, and they explained it was essentially a war with the West, which they hated. Then, in the summer of 2014, I was watching Russia Today when I saw French individuals speaking to the camera from Donetsk, in Eastern Ukraine. My colleagues – I was working then as a terrorist analyst at the Polish Institute of National Affairs – had their portfolios full, so to speak, with people going off to join ISIS, and I was wondering how my work fitted into the broader picture. When I first started looking at people who volunteered to fight in the Russo-Ukrainian war, everyone else was focusing on foreign fighters who were going to Syria. Please can you tell us a bit about your research, and how you came to focus on this area? You’ve just published your new work ‘Foreign Fighters in Ukraine: The Brown–Red Cocktail’. In this Insight, we talk to Kacper Rekawek, author of the recently published Foreign Fighters in Ukraine: The Brown–Red Cocktail, to discuss the role of extremist foreign fighters in the Russo-Ukrainian war and how technology is being used to facilitate their involvement. With social media being used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces to garner support for their war efforts, the role of technology in the conflict is constantly evolving. ![]() In a statement, Meta’s spokesperson said: “ The war in Ukraine has meant changing circumstances in many areas and it has become clear that the Azov Regiment does not meet our strict criteria for designation as a dangerous organization. The Ukrainian regiment became infamous for its neo-Nazi ideology after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014 and is now easy prey for Putin in his purported efforts to ‘de Nazify’ Ukraine. In January 2023, Meta removed the Azov Regiment from its list of dangerous individuals and organisations.
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