The ‘repeat’ foreign fighters: Interviews with international volunteers in Ukraine who have previously mobilised as volunteers in other foreign conflicts

The war in Ukraine has attracted large numbers of international volunteers who have travelled to join the Ukrainian military. A small category of these volunteers is known to be made up of those who have already gained combat experience as foreign fighters in previous conflicts, referred to in this article as ‘repeat foreign fighters’. The research on foreign fighter recidivism is restricted to the topic of Sunni jihadism and focused on the ‘blowback’ threat of returnees carrying out recruitment and terrorist attacks, or so-called ‘career foreign fighters’, who build their career by joining subsequent groups and earn higher levels of command through their veteran status legitimacy and reputation. However, jihadist returnees and career foreign fighters are committed to an overarching ideology that binds together their continued participation in insurgencies or extremist activity. For the Western volunteers who become repeat foreign fighters in Ukraine, ideology plays less of a role in their mobilisation. This article asks then, what factors motivate this lesser-known category of foreign fighter returnees who later remobilise for another conflict? Additionally, how does their veteran foreign fighter status impact their trajectory in future conflicts? It presents data from interviews with 10 individuals from Western countries who volunteered to fight in Ukraine and previously fought as foreign fighters during an earlier conflict, including in Syria or Iraq with the Kurdish YPG or Peshmerga against the Islamic State. The author, who is also a former foreign fighter in the YPG, had unique access to these sources. The respondents describe similar moral motivations for participation in both wars but present a picture of individuals who often struggled with reintegration as returnees after their first conflict. The findings highlight how this sometimes influenced their foreign fighter recidivism in Ukraine, such as feeling a lack of fulfillment with returning to ‘regular life’ and a desire to reconnect with the same sense of purpose. Some also described feeling deeply isolated as returnees. For them, the post-invasion mobilisation of international volunteers to Ukraine provided an opportunity to rejoin a conflict and regain a lost sense of brotherhood. The dataset also illustrates how the veteran status of repeat foreign fighters impacted their trajectory in Ukraine. Their previous experience as combat volunteers reduced psychological barriers to joining another armed conflict, with some travelling in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. Networks established among Western foreign fighters during the anti-Islamic State conflict were also central to the success of their remobilisation, with many travelling together, navigating bureaucratic hurdles and expediting their assignment to positions in Ukrainian military units through fellow veteran anti-Islamic State volunteer contacts.