On January 20, 2023, CEP hosted a presentation of the new book by Kacper Rekawek entitled "Foreign Fighters in Ukraine. The Brown–Red Cocktail". 

Link to book here.

The Russian (re-)invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted the Ukrainian authorities to call on its foreign supporters to join the Ukrainian war effort as part of the nascent “International Legion.” The thousands of individuals that apparently applied to join were not the first foreigners to fight in the conflict in Ukraine. Foreigners have been joining both sides of the conflict since 2014. 

This book unmasks this largely unknown group of fighters. The author analyses their various ideological and social backgrounds, motivations for joining the conflict, and their battle record in Eastern Ukraine. Based on interviews with these fighters the author examines why men risk their lives to fight a war abroad, while also attracting the attention of security services at home. The author seeks to establish whether these returnees constitute a potential security threat to the West.

EVENT PROGRAM:

Book Presentation: "Foreign Fighters in Ukraine. The Brown–Red Cocktail"
Kacper Rekawek, PhD
Author, postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo and affiliated researcher at the Counter Extremism Project (CEP)

Discussant
Michael Colborne
Journalist at Bellingcat, author of “From the Fires of War: Ukraine’s Azov Movement and the Global Far Right”