From Adelaide to Ukraine: what drove one Australian to join someone else’s war?

Matt Roe sits on an abandoned Russian tank on a highway outside Kyiv. The 36-year-old decided to sell his small business and find his way to Ukraine after watching horrifying footage of the war. Photograph: Matthew Roe

Matt Roe was devastated when he discovered a medical condition would prevent him joining the Australian military.

“It took me years to get over it … if I ever did,” the South Australian landscaper says.

“It’s all I ever wanted to do.”