Luis, a Mexican army veteran, saw a photo of a wounded pregnant woman being carried out of a Ukrainian maternity hospital after a Russian airstrike and was reminded of his sister.
Will, a Marine veteran from North Carolina, was shaken by a video showing a Russian tank firing several rounds into a car with an older Ukrainian couple inside. Martin, a farmer who had defused explosives in the German army, was angered by a week of television footage documenting Russia’s invasion.
They were among several foreign military volunteers waiting Friday at a hostel in Lviv, in western Ukraine, where the Ukrainian government had put them up before training. After the Russian invasion in February, Ukraine announced it was creating a foreign legion, inviting non-Ukrainians with military experience to come and join the fight.