One former Royal Marine Commando has claimed that the “PlayStation generation”, who have “no military experience” past what they’ve seen on their screens, are volunteering for the front lines with the “romantic notion” of saving Ukraine from Russia.
As reported by Stoke-on-Trent Live, Emile Ghessen, who now works as a documentarian, and is currently working on a documentary about the struggles that Ukrainians are facing in Kyiv, spoke on This Morning Britain, and stated that in the weeks since the invasion, he’s met a number of foreign volunteers who’ve been joining up with the Ukrainian forces, who he claims are “wannabe guys”, and are “clueless”.
“I've spent time with the guys here, and it comes with various reasons. You mentioned earlier about the PlayStation generation, there's quite a few young men here that have got no military experience, they've never seen combat, as far as it goes past the TV screen back home,” he said, when asked why people are risking their lives. “Some of them are clueless about what is going on - they've got this romantic notion that ‘I’m going to come and save Ukraine against Russia’.”
He was quick to clarify, however, that these volunteers aren’t just “thugs that want to kill people” like host Richard Madeley suggested: “I wouldn't say many of them are here just to kill people, but everyone I speak to, I ask: ‘are you prepared to kill Russians?’ and they say ‘yeah, of course I'm ready to kill Russians’ - where four, three weeks ago, they didn't have an issue with Russia,” he explained. “Some of them are the wannabe guys who you meet in a pub and said ‘Oh, I was going to join the army and never did’, and now they see an opportunity they can come and join volunteer units and be armed and go to the frontline.”
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There are, of course, ways to help the people of Ukraine from home - you can donate directly to the British Red Cross’ Ukraine Crisis Appeal here.
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