A man left his life in the Midlands to risk death fighting in Ukraine – after giving his family just two days’ notice that he was heading to the front line. At just 23, Keiran Von-Breen decided he wanted to help after watching the fighting on the news last year.
He joined the International Legion of Defence of Ukraine, which flew him to Poland last October. He then took a bus to an undisclosed part of Ukraine where he joined others in the war with Russia.
Speaking during a brief return home Keiran, who is from Birmingham but lives in Dudley, told BlackCountryLive the fighting was “brutal”. He spent Christmas in Ukraine and only returned to the UK in early March.
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He has already decided to go back in April. He said he had seen friends injured and killed in comba but was not deterred. Keiran said: “I knew people who had gone over there and saw what was happening on the news. It didn’t seem right and is happening so close to home.
“I heard about the International Legion so I got in contact with them and it went from there. I wanted to go straight away but had some passport issues so I left at the start of October. I flew to Poland and then got a transport bus into Ukraine and on the first day I joined the International Legion.
“It’s an international unit of people from all over – South Africa, Japan, you name it. I was there for nearly five-and-a-half months and came back a couple of weeks ago.
“I told my sister and my mum two days before I went. But most people didn’t know I’d gone over there until they saw it on my social media.”
Despite the dangers, Keiran said his family were supportive of his decision. “It can be brutal at times and you have to remember you’re outnumbered,” he said.
“Where I was, there were ten Russians for every Ukrainian. The unit includes people from all over the world so everyone has different ways of doing things. When you’re out there it is crazy and cold, very cold.”
Speaking about the locals where he was fighting, Keiran continued: “They are very appreciative, especially the civilians. To fight with them is brilliant, they have b***s of steel.
“The people there are brilliant and they get on with everything. If this happened in England, it would be panic.”
The combat included “constant bombing.” Keiran said: “Quite a few people fighting got injured. Just before I came back a close friend of mine in the unit was killed.
“It is constant bombing over there. The last mission I was on we were bombed for two days straight. We couldn’t see them to take them out but we couldn’t see anything and it was snowing really heavily. It was very intense.
“I caught a few blasts but was never hospitalised, I was pretty lucky to be honest.”
Keiran said it was a shock to the system to return to England for a short break from the war. “It’s lovely to be home but I’m looking forward to going back and helping as much as I can,” he said.
“England seems so quiet in comparison and so expensive. I used to see Ukrainian flags all over Birmingham but since I’ve got back that has died down. Some people act like the war isn’t even going on anymore
“Some people don’t understand how full-scale and bad it really is. I have a girlfriend in Ukraine and a lot of days she doesn’t go to work because there is no power or anything. Overall it has been an eye-opening experience. When you work with a group from all over the world it really helps – it would be so hard to do it alone.”
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