Editor’s note: Soldiers interviewed for this article are identified only by their first name, callsign, or nickname due to security reasons.
William, a 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran, has come to Ukraine to join the Ukrainian military in its fight against Russian aggression just days after his contract with the U.S. military ended in March.
The artilleryman’s original plan was to come here in summer, but as the new U.S. President Donald Trump made a dramatic U-turn in Ukraine policy, the need to travel to the war-torn country felt more urgent.
“It's frustrating to sit around doing nothing when you know you can do something right,” William told the Kyiv Independent a day before leaving for Ukraine.
William says he has felt drawn to Ukraine ever since the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv. As a high school student in Tennessee, he was moved by the Ukrainian uprising against a pro-Russian, anti-Western regime.
He is among the many Americans who have decided to join the Ukrainian army during the full-scale invasion, especially after the heated exchange between Trump, his Vice President JD Vance and President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Oval Office on Feb. 28. In the following week, the U.S. abruptly suspended its military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine – before resuming it this week. However, the U.S.’ increasing alignment with Russia continues to cast doubt on the future of its support for Ukraine.
One of the most elite Ukrainian units accepting foreign volunteers received “a massive spike” of applications, according to an international serviceman involved in recruiting. The source, who spoke anonymously due to his unit’s regulations, said that a few thousand applications came in after the Oval Office meeting, with “a significant amount of guys expressing outrage and shock over what has been happening with the shift in American policy.”
Another recruit, Ron, who was previously deployed in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army, said he contacted the Ukrainian military as soon as Trump took office and the U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing bans were set forth. Feeling “embarrassed by my country,” the American exit in supporting Ukraine “sealed it for me” to come fight in Ukraine, the 35-year-old Colorado native explained.
“I'm a patriot. I love my country. But the people who are in charge of it right now are destroying it, just destroying what it should stand for,” Ron told the Kyiv Independent a month before his departure for Ukraine.
“It's an absolute shame to me. I just can't sit by and watch it happen anymore, especially when the people of Ukraine are so freaking brave, and they're doing such great work with the limited equipment we have given them.”
While Ron said he was “shocked” that Trump was reelected as the president, he, like some other American recruits, also cautiously hoped that “maybe he would actually do the right thing on Ukraine.”
“But that first month of him in the office just completely shattered any illusion of that for me,” Ron said.
Asami Terajima
“He’s just selfish and only wants quick fixes,” Ron added, referring to the U.S. trying to pressure Ukraine into a rushed peace deal to end the war at any cost. Trump has pledged to end the war quickly, resuming the long-frozen diplomacy with Russia and priding himself on having a “very close relationship” with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s America-first policy has also left European nations on alert. Media reports have suggested that he is considering a dramatic shift in the U.S.’s involvement in NATO, refusing to defend another member state as part of Article 5 if it doesn’t meet the defense spending threshold.
Worried that the U.S. could eventually completely abandon Europe, Ron said he decided that he needs to do his part to avoid what he believes could be “a general war in Europe with Russia” in the near future.
A former U.S. Army Cavalry Scout, who goes by his callsign Juggernaut, also said he “felt sick to the stomach” after seeing the U.S. decreasing its support for Ukraine despite Russia’s horrific war crimes against civilians across the country.
He finished his seven-year contract with the U.S. Army a week after Trump’s inauguration. He came over to Ukraine in February and is currently awaiting training with a Ukrainian unit.
Although he voted for Trump in 2024, the 28-year-old Hawaii resident said he felt “really disappointed” in his leadership even though he understands the America-first policy.
“We only have so long on this earth, and worrying about ourselves isn’t going to bring us any gratification at the end of our lives,” Juggernaut told the Kyiv Independent from eastern Ukraine.
He said that his fear of coming here and “dying for no reason” faded when he arrived in Ukraine and saw first-hand what the country and its people were going through.
“I kind of stopped thinking like that because I'm a spiritual person, and it made me sick to my stomach, the idea of Russians taking over this country and these people here suffering even more than they already have,” Juggernaut said.
A 40-year-old father and lawyer from Texas, who introduced himself as Esquire, is another recruit waiting in Kyiv to join the Ukrainian military. While he has no prior army experience, he said he made the decision to enlist because he did not want to live for the rest of his days knowing he was “a coward.”
Esquire wonders if his two kids and his wife, who begged him not to go, would ever forgive him for making what everyone back home believed would be “a meaningful sacrifice,” but he stressed that he could not just watch the world turn upside down.
“I feel betrayed, sickened, and like my country is no longer what I thought it was,” Esquire told the Kyiv Independent at a cafe in Kyiv.
“I mourn my country like I mourn a dead friend.”
