‘It was like in world war one’: the foreign volunteers fighting in Ukraine

Alan from England speaks of difficult fighting from the trenches, while Steve from the US hasn't registered with his embassy

Standing on a steep grassy hill, a figure in uniform took aim with a rifle. Several shots pinged into a pile of tyres. Nearby, policemen took turns firing from a DShK heavy machine gun, mounted on a green-painted military vehicle. The rounds echoed around a rustic shooting range, scattering swallows. Down a track was a farmstead with cows.

The sniper was not a Ukrainian soldier but a 58-year-old British former marine called Alan, from Plymouth in south-west England. He is one of a small group of foreign volunteers currently fighting in Ukraine, more than sixteen months after Russia's full-scale invasion. Alan declined to give his second name. He arrived last September. Soon he will go back to the frontline.