Harrison Josefovich quit his job as a Chicago police officer and went abroad after Russia invaded Ukraine. An army veteran said he could not help but join U.S. volunteers trying to help Ukrainians fight.
Josefovic now leads a group called the Yankee Task Force, which he said has assigned more than 190 volunteers to combat slots and other duties, delivered 15,000 first aid kits, helped relocate more than 80 families, and assist in delivering dozens of pallets of food and medicine. things. On the south and east front The war.
This is a difficult, dangerous job. But Josefovic said he could do nothing to watch the United States withdraw from Afghanistan last year, especially after a close friend of Staff Sergeant Ryan Knaus A suicide bomber committed suicide in Kabul.
“So I’m just trying to do everything I can to make sure I can help others not go through what I’ve been through,” he said in an interview via the messaging platform on Saturday.
The former U.S. Marine, who died last week, is believed to be the first U.S. citizen killed in the fighting in Ukraine. Willie Joseph Cansell, 22, died Monday while working for a military contractor company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother Rebecca Cabrera told CNN.
An unidentified number of other Americans – many with military backgrounds – think they are in the country fighting Russian forces along with volunteers from both Ukrainian and other countries, though U.S. forces were not directly involved in the fighting other than sending military supplies and humanitarian aid. Money. The U.S. government is preventing Americans from protesting in Ukraine, raising legal and national security concerns.
Russia’s aggression prompted the Ukrainian embassy in Washington to investigate thousands of Americans seeking help in the fighting, and Ukraine is using the Internet to recruit volunteers for foreign forces. International Defense Legion of Ukraine.
“Anyone who wants to join the security forces in Europe and around the world can go and side with the Ukrainians against the occupiers in the 21st century,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Anja Osmon from Texas, who served in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2009 to 2015, said she went to Ukraine independently. As a doctor, he said he came to Ukraine on March 20 and lived in the woods with other members of the International Legion until the new commander was removed because he didn’t like female warriors.
Osman, 30, said his mother wanted him to come home in September. But now he wants to get stuck in the hotel where he is in Lviv and catch up with other fighting forces closer to the action.
“I can’t avoid injustice,” he said. “No one should be afraid.”
U.S. Navy veteran Eddie Etum said he quit his concert business job, found a friend in Colorado to see his cat, and left home in San Diego, California, four blocks from expenses, to help Ukraine, where he is. two weeks. He works in an auxiliary organization, but now he trains with an international legion.
Etum, 36, said he could not stay home. “That’s right,” said Eto’o, who funded the trip through an online funding campaign.
Eto’o’s family history led him to Ukraine. He said his grandparents left Hungary carrying nothing but four children and clothes after the 1956 revolution, which was overthrown by Soviet forces leaving thousands dead or wounded.
“What is happening here will affect not only the people who experience it, but also their children and grandchildren,” he said. “I know from personal experience.”
Josefovich, a former Chicago police officer, said there are thousands of Americans and other volunteers in Ukraine. Many organizations operate in the country and, according to Josefovic, his group alone has deployed so many volunteer positions across the country, of which about 40 are combat jobs.
“We do not promote the participation of civilians in the direct action role. “We are only directing and connecting with past military volunteers,” he said.
But much still needs to be done. Volunteer groups receive medical and food supplies from a country of 44 million people, he said, while others work with refugees and others who have been forced to flee their homes.
“The closer I am to Ukraine and the more time I spend in Ukraine, the more gaps I feel are being filled to maximize my volunteer group’s efforts,” she said.
Osman, who said he was in contact with Josefovic’s group, said he gave the troops antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs in the woods a few days later.
“Most of them had a fever rash from hiding in trenches in the snow and cold air,” he said. “Bronchitis is destroying us.”
Eto’o said he heard the country after a 24 -hour round trip with another volunteer to take a car to Odessa. He said he admired the quality of people serving in the international legion after the Ukrainians did a good job of removing inexperienced and “war tourists” who had so much to offer for the army.
“I think they’re doing incredibly well because they’re fighting one of the biggest standing armies in the world,” he said.
Source: Huffpost
