Irish fighters survive bomb hell
Volunteers were among those targeted by a Russian missile attack on Lviv base
IRISH volunteers were among foreign soldiers who were targeted by a devastating Russian cruise missile attack on a Ukrainian base in the western city of Lviv.
While two Irish soldiers who survived have since returned to Ireland, other volunteers in the foreign legion were ‘vaporised’ in the blast, according to eyewitnesses.
It is not yet known if any Irish victims are among the 35 fatalities confirmed so far.
The region, which until last week was an area relatively unaffected by the war, has seen a series of strikes this week that challenge the city’s status as a safe zone for refugees fleeing war in north and eastern Ukraine.
Now funeral processions intersect with bread lines in the city as the bombardments leave locals facing an uncertain future.
Smoke from a Russian cruise missile attack was visible in the city on Friday, just five days after the attack on a training base where several Irish citizens were living after joining international volunteers. The men, who went to join a group of foreigners near the Polish-Ukrainian border, were in an area hit by 30 cruise missiles which, according to Ukrainian sources, killed more than 35 people.
Jay, a 23-year-old British fighter who spoke to the Irish Mail on Sunday, described the attack as ‘hell’ and said he believes the foreign volunteers were deliberately targeted by Russia.
‘I saw lads vaporised in front of my eyes. I told the lads to go spread out and go one way and now they’re dead because of me. I only survived because of luck. If you hear the whistle and survive, you’re just lucky. Putin is sending a message to the world: if you send this many foreigners we will kill you,’ he said.
It is still unknown if Irish citizens were killed in the attack as the death toll is still unclear.
Jay, who met Irish fighters at the base, said he believes the number of dead volunteers is much higher than the figures being reported.
‘Ukrainians are not telling how many foreigners are dying because they want people to keep coming. We spoke to people who said there is nothing left of the base. The worst thing I saw was lads dying in front of my face. They stood no chance. Young lads, just gone,’ he said
Funerals of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the base continue daily in Lviv, shattering the security many felt in a region close to Nato and EU member Poland.
Many elderly people refused to leave their homes and now lack the support of younger family members who fled at the start of the war.
While Lviv is still seen as secure, these attacks have left locals on edge and civilian militia stop anyone suspected of being a Russian saboteur. At the train station, hundreds of refugees cross to Poland daily while aid trucks travel north to regions Ukrainians worry could fall under siege.
Iryna, a 35-year-old mother of two, said she decided to leave when she saw civilian areas shelled in Kyiv.
‘He [Putin] is shelling houses that are nowhere near anything military. Killing grandmothers to “free Ukraine”. Nowhere in Ukraine is safe from his bombs. He wants to destroy Ukraine. He wants to destroy all of us,’ she told the MoS.
Jay and several others broke their contracts with the Ukrainian military and decided to leave Ukraine after the attack on the base. He said he felt ill-equipped to fight Russia.
‘We were supposed to go to Kyiv once we got our weapons so it went from having a month’s training to having 12 days’ training to 10 days’ training, then from five days’ training to two days. We asked for weapons. What were we going to do, fight with our bare fists and knives? The Russians had night vision and thermal
‘I saw lads vaporised in front of my eyes’
‘You have to be a soldier to be a deserter’
scopes. A lot of lads, bless their hearts, went for the right reasons but they’d no idea,’ he said.
As volunteers and refugees leave, it is unclear if Ukraine will try to hold those who signed up to fight.
‘They called us deserters, but you have to be a soldier to be a deserter and we were just civilians in army clothing. We had to sign a contract and they were laughing when we signed. We were asking to read it and they were laughing, “just sign”. All our paperwork went up in smoke with the base,’ Jay added.
Two Irish volunteers have already returned to Ireland, including Irishman Ivan Farina, a veteran of the Balkan war where he fought alongside Croatian forces.
Mr Farina, 51, says he was blown off his feet by the sonic boom from missiles landing in the base as he ran towards a wood to take cover.
He told the Irish Times: ‘As I left our block and ran out, I heard a crackling sound and I thought they may be cluster bombs. So I was pegging it and I thought I was already surrounded [by cluster bombs exploding]. I really thought I was going to be caught.’
Mr Farina said two days after the attack, as he and his colleagues were sleeping in the woods in freezing temperatures, he got a message on his phone from his daughter.
‘I read it and I realised how much stress my family were under and I realised the situation we were in – our supplies were very low and ammunition was very low. I had said to myself I was staying but then when I read my daughter’s message, my resolve collapsed. And I just thought I couldn’t do this to them any more.’
Despite his ordeal, Mr Farina insists he has ‘no regrets’ about his decision to go to Ukraine to fight.
‘It’s a pity it didn’t turn out better but the legion is still there. It’s been a tough task trying to get this thing up and going, and those of us who left have gone for our own reasons, mainly family reasons.’
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it can provide only limited assistance to people who go to Ukraine to fight. It says there are now 40 registered Irish citizens in the country and 163 have departed since February 1.