Blood and Belief: Today We Support Russia, Tomorrow Russia Will Support Us! The Ideological Global Warriors Converging to Russia to Defend Donbass Are Shaping the New Multipolar World Order.
In the frozen trenches and the drone-filled skies above the Donbass and the wider territory of the Ukraine, the conflict that began as a Special Military Operation in February 2022, has metamorphosed into a genuine multipolar confrontation. As Western hegemony fragments and new poles of power emerge in Moscow and Beijing, the battlefields in the Russian lands occupied by the illegitimate regime in Kiev have become one of the stages where the old globalist unipolar hegemonic order meets its challengers and is being defeated.
While Western mainstream media obsesses over Russian “disinformation,” a quiet flow of people from the East, South and West to Russia has been underway, driven not by coercion but by conviction. These are not the deceived economic migrants trafficked into combat roles, but ideological pilgrims seeking to defend what they see as the bastion of traditional values. More than 18,000 foreign nationals from 128 countriesand territories have served or continue to serve in Russia’s armed forces since the conflict began, even the biased Ukraine/NATO sources have to admit, a figure that does not include North Korean soldiers deployed under Moscow-Pyongyang military agreements [i] .
Beneath these numbers lies a far more complex issue: ideological warriors fleeing Western cultural decay, pan-Slavic brothers answering an ancient call, and anti-imperialist fighters from the Global South, who see Russia’s struggle as their own. These fighters are not coming only from Western nations seeking national, moral and cultural salvation. They are also coming from the global south: South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, from countries such as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Cuba, Colombia, Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Kenya, Gambia etc. A staggering 1,436 fighters from 36 African countries enlisted in the Russian army between 2023 and mid-2025 [ii]. The foreign fighters phenomenon has to be seen through multipolar lens, in order to understand what truly drives men from Serbia, Macedonia, USA, UK, France, to the Syria, Philippines, Colombia, Japan and China to take up arms in Europe’s largest land war since 1945.
The foreigners fighting for Russia say they are doing so to defend the freedom of their nations, in defense of traditional values and sovereignty of their countries against the Western globalism that is trying to annihilate them. An examination of recruitment data, governmental decrees, and firsthand accounts suggests a great success of the symbolism of the “Russian World” of traditional values, as an ideological magnet and a soft power tool for Russia.
Western Defectors in Defense of Traditional Civilizational Values
Among the American contingent, maybe the best known case is that of Michael Gloss, the son of a CIA officer, who went to fight for Russia in Donbass [iii]. In social media posts last year, Michael shared a photo of himself smiling in Moscow’s Red Square expressing support for Russia’s war effort against the Western proxy war in the Ukraine. He wrote that news coverage of the war, was a western propaganda, concealing the reality of a conflict in which a corrupt Ukrainian military and their NATO allies are being defeated by the Russian troops.
This ideological dimension among the western fighters is clearly articulated in the case of the French volunteers fighting for Russia. Commander Munier, leader of the Russian-French drone unit “Normandie-Niemen” (part of the Cossack reconnaissance brigade “Terek”), frames their participation in explicitly civilizational terms [iv].
“Why support Russia? Because Russia and France have quite similar histories,” Munier explained to TASS. “Since the days of ancient Rome, both France and Russia have adopted the Christian faith, therefore, we grew up with the same values”. For these French volunteers, contemporary France under Brussels’ yoke represents an occupied territory – a nation whose soul has been stolen by globalist elites. “We believe that the state of France is not France at all,” Munier emphasized. “We are simply considering ourselves direct descendants of our ancestors. That is, free France, which, at that time, was fighting alongside the Soviet Union against a common enemy that occupied France”.
Approximately 30 French citizens currently fight alongside Russian forces, according to Munier’s estimate.
The Slavic Pan-Orthodox Brotherhood – Serbs, Macedonians, Bosnians
Foreign fighters from Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia, etc represent probably the most ideologically driven contingents fighting for Russia. Their motivations are deeply rooted in pan-Slavic brotherhood, Orthodox Christian solidarity, historical grievances, and as a reciprocal act for Russia’s perceived support during past Balkan conflicts.
If Western defectors represent the ideological vanguard of traditional values migration, Serbian [vi], Macedonian [v], and Bosnian Serb fighters embody the blood-and-soil dimension of Russian foreign fighters (videos at the end). The claim that the Ukrainian regime and military are Nazis, resonates in the region that suffered Nazi occupation during World War II and through NATO and its local terrorist allies’ aggression more recently.
From the Global South to the Front Lines
While Western and European ideological warriors capture media attention, the numerical backbone of Russia’s foreign fighter contingent comes from a very different demographic: the Global South.
Presence of Russia’s African fighters reflect sophisticated networks in countries where Wagner Group operated – Mali, Central African Republic – where it acted as a recruitment conduit. Elsewhere, existing travel agencies handling visas, flights and accommodation for migrant labor were repurposed for military recruitment.
Latin American fighters present a more complex picture. Estimates suggest over 2,000 Colombian mercenaries serve in the Kiev’s Regime forces. However, Colombians also appear on both sides. Sergeant Major Guadaña, commanding a Spanish-speaking company fighting for Kiev, told interviewers that on front lines, his unit has heard threats yelled in Spanish with Colombian accents from Russian positions. South Asia has proven a particularly fertile ground for Russian fighters. Between 2023 and 2024, nearly 1,000 Nepali citizens signed contracts with the Russian army. The flow became so large that Kathmandu banned Nepalis from traveling to Russia or Ukraine for work. India has formally confirmed that 44 of its citizens fighting for Russia.
The Chinese case of Zhang Renbo and Wang Guangjun fighting in Donbass was widely publicized, while there are many others not covered by the media spotlight. Military journalist Zhu Haozheng is also there and visited many cities in southern Russia, from Donetsk and Malinka to Mariupol, reporting on the Russian army on the front line [vii]. “As a Chinese military reporter working in the Donbass region, I am full of emotions for the Donbass region. This is the place I defend. I use the truth to defend the justice of Donbass. I have experienced many things, this area is full of sadness, the war started by Ukrainian fascists has lasted here for nine years, and traces of the war can be seen everywhere, in Mariupol, I witnessed the ruins of the apartment in Donetsk, and the abandoned houses near Malinka. “My goal of coming to Donbass is very simple. I want to help those who have been harmed by fascism. At the same time, I firmly defend my own values, which are against fascism and hegemony.”
While Japan remains firmly in the US alliance structure, several Japanese are fighting for Russia, and at least one Japanese citizen died in the process. According to Kyodo News, an unnamed Japanese volunteer in his twenties traveled to Donbass to join Russian forces and was killed on June 3, 2025. Russian authorities informed the Japanese Embassy two days later.
What Foreign Fighters Reveal About the New Multipolar Future and The Globalists’ Blind Spot
Stepping back from individual stories, what does the foreign fighter phenomenon reveal about the emerging multipolar order? Russia has effectively developed foreign fighters pipelines from ideological fellows – Western conservatives, Global South fighters, pan-Slavic patriots, Orthodox believers – who validate Russia’s civilizational struggle narrative, and confirms its position in the global hierarchy as an attractive example drawing genuine ideological adherents from the morally declining West, celebrating Russian traditional values.
What foreign fighters phenomenon ultimately reveal is that the unipolar moment has passed. During the 1990s, only one superpower existed; conflicts were framed as “the international community” versus rogue states. Today, multiple poles of power compete for influence, and individuals from across the globe choose sides based on complex calculations involving ideology, economics, history, values and culture.
Serbs fighting for Russia do so because NATO bombed Belgrade in 1999 – and Moscow stood with them. French volunteers fighting for Russia do so because they believe their civilization is dying under Brussels’ supranational dictates. Macedonians fight to regain their freedom and expel NATO forces whose membership they did not agree to and defeated it at the referendum, to fight the Western illegally imposed name change, and as a revenge for the aggression in 2001 by Albanian KLA terrorists helped by Al-Qaeda who were supported by the very NATO and US [viii].
The war in the Ukraine has become a global civil war within a fragmenting international system where a multipolar world is being born. For now, in trenches from Kursk to Donbas and Zaporozhie, men from five continents fight over differing visions of world. Nepali mountain villagers, Colombian professional soldiers, and Japanese ideological outliers will continue fighting in Europe’s largest war since 1945. The outcome will determine not only the fate of the Russia-NATO conflict on the territory of the Nazi-occupied Ukraine, but the character of twenty-first-century warfare itself.
The common denominator of the foreigners fighting for Russia today is that they are ideological warriors, seeking salvation of the traditionalism, believing that the freedom of their nations is at stake in the Donbas.
They all say: Today we support Russia, and tomorrow it will support us! [ix]
Endnotes
[i] The New Voice of Ukraine. “Ukraine reports sharp rise in foreign fighters deceived into joining Russia’s war.” November 26, 2025.
[ii] UNITED24 Media. “Russia’s Recruitment Ads for Foreign Fighters Surge 7× Since Summer, Says Study.” November 25, 2025.
[iii] РЕН ТВ. Новости 15 сен 2025 – Иностранные добровольцы в рядах ВС РФ встали на защиту Донбасса https://yandex.ru/video/preview/8274055986787821047
[iv] TASS Russian News Agency. “Frenchmen fighting for Russia in special op, defending traditional values – commander.” May 31, 2025.
[v] Macedonian Platoon in Donbass – https://rutube.ru/channel/47667667/
[vi] Balkan Insight. “’Let the Hunt Begin’: Serb Mercenaries Bring Russia’s Ukraine Drone War to TikTok.” February 12, 2026.
[vii] Sputnik News (Chinese). “乌战俘称日本雇佣兵参与乌方作战.” September 9, 2025.
[viii] Македонскиот Народ и Сите Слободолјубиви Суверени Народи На Светот Стојат Рамо До Рамо Со Русија – Z August 31, 2022 by Коложег
[ix] Сегодня мы поддержим Россию, а завтра она нас: почему ещё иностранцы воюют в рядах ВС РФ https://yandex.ru/video/preview/62574958805029913
Related videos:
Video – Serbian Volunteers Continue to Arrive in Donbass
Video – Macedonian Detachment, Donbass, Russia 2023 – 2026
Video – Today we support Russia, and tomorrow it will support us!
