newsie met in kiev two young men one
from the us and the other from the uk
new wartime buddies at a crossroads
willing to share their story one
anonymously the other using his real
name alfie wheeler i know what he's done
but i'm not going to say what he's done
we've killed we've killed people yeah
this is what it's what what what you do
it's brutal i've never seen anything
like it that's all i can say it's i've
never
this is it's wholesale wholesale
brutality that's all i can say i've come
here to fight
defend the city alfie is 20 years old
defend car cave now which are going to
next
alex as he asked us to call him from
oklahoma 23. have you lost people you
fought alongside yeah they were dear to
me they were part of my squad i've
already lost someone
when we was under heavy fire he took a
bullet a bullet to the neck and it hit
the artery
that was the one guy
that obviously you i trusted to
be beside my side it's impossible to
verify the specific details of these
young soldiers accounts
though alex showed newsie photos and
videos of what he's witnessed including
brutal urban combat against the russians
in kiev's suburbs if the foreign legion
wasn't made cave we'd be paying in
rubles right now
there will be a russian parade going
through both all these streets right now
if the before legion wasn't made
in a nutshell we bought time for the
ukrainian army let's let's let's put it
like that explain that something do you
know how close russia was to conquering
keith
a few more blocks and they would've took
the capital the legion held the line and
pushed them back the legion held the
line about the ukrainian army time to
gather up and push them back
the legion declined to comment on that
characterization and does not verify
soldiers and its ranks most of the
photos alex shared are too gruesome to
show here he says that in european he
got frostbite received medical treatment
and then the legion told him to go home
but alex didn't want to leave ukraine he
wanted to get back into the fight in la
viv he met alfie and the two of them
hopped the train to this station here in
kiev their plan
join the ukrainian offensive in kharkiv
in the east we met alex and alfie the
day before they plan to head to the
front lines
what about your parents what do they
think of this
i don't want to talk about my parents
they must be worried about you is all
i'm saying they don't know that i'm here
to be honest on their point of
perspective they might think i'm doing a
stupid thing and i've got a death wish
but i don't i want to try and do the
right thing i want to try and help out
as much as possible
um
whether
i might be stuck in a trench for two
weeks or i'm on the front line
killing russians
the plan was for them to be picked up
from this hostel in kyiv and early the
next morning head to the front line
ukraine is going to be defended to my
last down breath and that's what i'm
going to do that's why i'm here
the next day alex joined the offensive
in the east to take back kharkiv from
the russians
but in a call the next week there were
hints of disillusionment with his new
commander like on the mission they give
him like two magazines i'm like why
don't we have two magazines
he's like well
you won't need six you get killed
and then the fog of war settled in he
said that alfie had joined a different
unit further south and was missing in
action he was killed so when the dumbass
and how'd you find that out
a friend of a friend but what's app
messages sent to alfie showed they were
seen and it was increasingly apparent
that alfie was not dead in fact alfie
had left ukraine according to a
ukrainian source who checked the border
logs he never actually made it to the
front the day after we spoke with him he
headed to the border with poland and
never came back
such mysteries surrounding the movement
of foreign fighters in this war are not
uncommon another foreign fighter a bomb
tech from the uk who once crossed paths
with alfie says the confusion over his
whereabouts is pretty typical new groups
are being formed by westerners there's
no there's no accountability no one
knows where they are no one knows where
to operate in who they are
so you're coming across pockets of guys
that might be found dead or
no one knows who they are what they were
doing there um because they've they've
slopped off they've gone to do their own
thing and there is there is no
accountability some people just may
never be heard from again
did you say close or hold it
we were told to hold his position as for
alex we met up with him once more
after two weeks at the front he left his
unit and passed again through keeve the
final straw for him he says were his
orders to find landmines so i was in the
dirt i was on my belly i was they gave
me a gerber tool like a multi-tool knife
to poke the ground of landmines i would
pick them up i'd unscrew the cap
get the deadening pin pull it out did
you want to be doing line clearing no
when i interviewed you before you said
you're not going home you're going to
stay till the end what changed i'm just
tired
i'm tired do you think this is your last
war
this
is it for me i'm going home
i gotta go alex had a train to catch but
the war's magnetic pull would prove too
strong just a few days later a message
from alex sharing a photo of what
appears to be a newly signed foreign
legion contract
and this video of the front lines
jason bellini news