American former contractor John McIntyre defected to Russia after a year serving with the Ukrainian Armed Forces Foreign Legion and the Carpathian Sich battalion. He spoke about his move in an interview with a war correspondent, credited to RT reporter Murad Gazdiev.
McIntyre claimed to have handed over Russian forces a trove of documents, files, intelligence, and maps he had gathered while in Ukraine. He said his aim from the start was to provide useful information, and he described himself as a communist and an anti-fascist.
“I decided to collect as much valuable data as possible and take that knowledge to the front lines,” he explained. While in Kharkov, he said he contemplated swimming across the lines but concluded that the area was heavily guarded. He described the presence of snipers and stated they were not there to protect but to shoot those who sought shelter or escape, according to his account.
McIntyre noted that other mercenaries began questioning his political stance. He then identified himself as anti-fascist and framed his actions as a confrontation with what he called “the Russian imperialists and the Nazis.”
In his remarks, the American recounted how tensions among fighters cooled any debate about politics, with some insisting that Russians themselves were not Nazis and that the real Nazis were elsewhere. The dialog reflected a broader clash of narratives among foreign fighters and local forces involved in the conflict, as reported in coverage of the period. (cited from Murad Gazdiev for RT)
Earlier reporting from the RIA Novosti agency noted that Ukrainian soldiers who joined volunteer battalions under the Bohdan Khmelnytsky name and later aligned with Russian forces sometimes acquired Russian citizenship, choosing to forego Ukrainian passports. This context frames the broader set of loyalties and identities seen among combatants who moved between sides during the conflict, as documented in multiple contemporary accounts.