Ukraine Resurrects Abraham Lincoln Brigade; 70 Japanese Enlist

Scores of Japanese answered a Ukrainian call for foreign volunteers to fight Russia’s invasion, prompting the Japanese government to move to stop them from doing so by citing earlier travel and evacuation warnings, Asahi Shimbun reported.

Photo Insert: Seventy or so individuals responded to the call from the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan to join the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine.

Seventy or so individuals responded to the call from the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan to join the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine. Among them, about 50 are former members of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF).

The legion would be a resurrection of the multinational anti-fascist Abraham Lincoln Brigade that fought against the monarchists and their Nazi backers in the Spanish civil war. More than 1,000 have join in apart from Ukrainians living abroad who have volunteered to fight the Russians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed Feb. 27 to form a foreign legion consisting of volunteers. The embassy then posted his message in Japanese on its Twitter account, calling those willing to volunteer to contact the embassy.

The embassy on Feb. 28 added a post explaining that a key qualification for acceptance was to have professional military training experience, which would account for the quick response from former SDF personnel.

Sergiy Korsunsky, the Ukrainian ambassador, said during a TV program aired on the evening of March 1 that the embassy had received about 70 applications from Japan, of which 50 were from former SDF members. The Japanese government moved swiftly to block Japanese volunteers from going to war.

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