A candidate for US Congress quit his campaign to join foreign mercenaries fighting in Ukraine.
Mark Lindquist, the only Democrat running in Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District, defied White House advice and is joining Ukraine’s "International Legion of Defence".
The former US Air Force staff sergeant, whose closest brush with combat was a "Bob Hope-style" Christmas show in Afghanistan, is "willing to die for Ukraine’s freedom" after being inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s "Hamilton".
"Like the song says, ‘I am not throwing away my shot’," Mr Lindquist told The Washington Post about the song My Shot, which references Marquis de Lafayette.
The French aristocrat commanded American troops during the Revolutionary War, or as the song calls him, "Mister Lafayette, hard rock like Lancelot, I think your pants look hot".
Mr Lindquist downloaded the hit musical’s soundtrack for the 10-hour journey to Ukraine in eight days, likely solidifying the congressional race in November’s general election for Republican incumbent Michelle Fischbach.
More than 7,000 US citizens have applied to join Ukraine’s foreign legion, according to a figure provided by Ukraine’s embassy in Washington to Newsweek.
President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed 16,000 foreign fighters from the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and elsewhere answered his call of duty to repel the invasion by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Reports quickly emerged of foreigners being sent to the front lines without adequate kit or ammunition to be used as "cannon fodder". Carl Walsh, a former combat medical technician who previously served in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq for over 20-years, told The Telegraph that it was a suicide mission for those with a "death wish".
“To join the international legion, the Ukrainians wanted to take our passports off us, sign a year contract, give us training for two days – 48 hours – and then within another 48 hours we would be fighting in Kyiv,” he said.
“They didn’t even have weapons in camp to train with.”
The foreign legion saw a mass exodus after a Russian airstrike killed 35 people at a training facility near the Polish border, which was blamed on phone signals from between 12 to 14 British volunteers visible to Russian surveillance.
A spokesman for the newly formed International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, Corporal Damien Margrou, confirmed some claims of ex-recruits who got cold feet from indefinite contracts and airstrikes, which Russia claimed killed 180 mercenaries – a figure Ukraine denies.
"We have discharged people who wanted to leave following Sunday’s attack," he said told CTV News, adding that no one from the legion was among the casualties from that attack.
"Recruits sign a contract that’s valid for the duration of the martial law," he added. "So they’re signing on for the duration of the war."
"They can be court-martialed if they don’t follow military rules or if they desert. In theory, they have the same treatment as Ukrainian servicemen," he continued. "In practice… we’ve been very understanding with people having to leave for various personal or other reasons."
Mr Margrou warned would-be recruits that Ukraine is not a holiday camp and that they could not guarantee anyone’s safety in a war zone.
Despite such warnings, Mr Lindquist, who served as an intelligence analyst stationed in Hawaii and is now a motivational speaker who sings the national anthem at NFL games, is not deterred from joining the international legion
"I’m not married. I have no kids. I’m an able-bodied, 40-year-old military member with no strings attached," he told the Post.
"How can I not go? Because I know I can help either on the humanitarian side or bringing the training of the American military to this fight."
