In Ukraine’s long, bloody fight for its survival, some Canadians are still serving on the front lines.
One operates a Leopard battle tank in the eastern region of Sumy. Another guides drones over the Dnipro river in Ukraine’s southern Kherson province. A third — a mother from B.C. — tends to wounded recruits in a Donetsk-stationed penal unit.
They arrived at different moments, from different lives. But they share the same conviction: that Ukraine’s battle is their own.
“I always told my family and friends I’m one that will go and do something, not just talk about it,” said Cowboy, the Canadian tanker whose real name Canadian Affairs agreed to withhold for security reasons.
“You can talk about it all day and pray about it all day,” he said. “But at the end of the day, if you don’t go and try to make change, there won’t be no change.”
More than three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, long after the international spotlight on Ukraine has dimmed, these are just some of the Canadians who remain — and who say they plan to serve until the end.
Answering the call
Maple, who was a firefighter in Alberta before the war, remembers watching the Russian build-up along Ukraine’s border in February 2022 and feeling certain that invasion was imminent.
“Everybody knew it was going to happen. And they did … the president of Ukraine came on the TV in Canada … Ukraine put out an international call for help, and I answered the call.”
Two days later, he landed in Poland, crossed into Ukraine, and began training as a combat medic — a role that drew on his skills from his firefighting days. He has since served in multiple units and now flies first-person-view drones for the 34th Coastal Defence Brigade — a frontline formation of the Ukrainian military locked in a brutal fight to maintain access to the Black Sea.
While drone pilots like Maple operate their weapons remotely, often kilometres away from Russian personnel, their role is anything but safe.
“You’re not above the danger,” he told Canadian Affairs over a video call while recovering in a hospital from a recent Russian artillery strike. “Sometimes being on a drone team means you’re in a lot more danger, because if enemy reconnaissance spots where you’re operating, they do their best to eliminate you.
“A drone team is a high-value target.”
Injury has not dissuaded him. Maple has suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries from drones and rocket-propelled grenades in Ukraine’s occupied eastern regions. But he remains focused on the contributions he can make.
“We are still here,” he told Canadian Affairs, just a day before returning to his position in Kherson.
“We are still holding the line. Ukraine is a people and a country worth saving, and they don’t want to be Russian.”
The medic of Alcatraz
April Huggett works as both combat medic and PR manager for the Alcatraz Battalion, a Ukrainian military unit composed of former prisoners who have volunteered to serve in the Armed Forces in exchange for their freedom.
Huggett says that as a medic, much of her impact stems from her proactive approach. In the war-torn Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Huggett is often the only source of medical aid for a group of men who have led incredibly austere lives.
“These guys aren’t used to [receiving care],” she said of the men in Alcatraz Battalion, noting the stiff-lipped reluctance of her soldiers to ask for aid.
“But I think it’s so important that they learn that they matter, that somebody’s going to listen to them.”
Her work now extends from wound care to screening for chronic conditions. She is the Alcatraz soldiers’ lifeline on what is arguably Ukraine’s most treacherous and fiercely contested front.
As a PR manager, Huggett creates content on social media, including for her nearly 10,000 followers on X. Through her online advocacy to the Western world, she has managed to secure donations ranging from a new transport truck to thermal-imaging drones.
For Huggett, who works and lives under the constant threat of Russian airstrikes, the moral stakes of the war are clear.
“Every single person here understands that if they don’t fight now, their children are fighting [in the future],” she said in an interview while crouching with Canadian Affairs under tree cover, hiding from a Russian drone.
“And then there’ll be no home left.”
The tank vet
Cowboy came from a different background. A former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, he serves with Ukraine’s 21st Mechanized Brigade in Sumy, operating in a Leopard tank donated by Germany.
“My job is basically to make sure the gun and the machine guns are ready to go at a moment’s notice,” he told Canadian Affairs at a site in the Russia-bordering Sumy province.
Unlike many foreign volunteers who cluster together, Cowboy serves almost exclusively with Ukrainian troops. He says he likes it that way.
“The hospitality I’ve been getting and the gratitude and the teamwork and brotherhood — it’s just amazing. They treat me as if I was a Ukrainian.”
“[Cowboy] is brave and smart,” said Bober, a fellow member of the 21st Brigade. “He has good experience with tactical exercises and movements on the battlefield. We need more soldiers like him.”
Hollywood, another Ukrainian soldier in the brigade, agrees: “[Cowboy] is a good friend, a good soldier and he is always ready to support our brothers.”
Like Huggett, Cowboy leverages his English-language ability to serve as a liaison with Western donors.
“Being able to reach out … talking to Canadian support groups, American support groups… it’s very beneficial because they understand the urgency to have this equipment.”
Complacency not an option
Each Canadian has different reasons for staying, but all describe the same conviction that Ukraine’s war is their own.
Cowboy says he is motivated by a desire to keep Ukrainian civilians safe from indiscriminate Russian strikes. And while he hopes for a peace deal, he recognizes the conflict may drag on a lot longer.
“I’m committed to the cause,” he said. “Helping others, you know, becoming that team member, it’s a big deal to me … I want to see victory for Ukraine.”
Reliable estimates of the number of Canadians in Ukraine are hard to pin down. Ottawa does not track how many citizens have enlisted. But early in the war, former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who helped Ukrainian diplomats organize volunteers, estimated roughly 1,500 Canadians had applied to join the International Legion in 2022.
Ottawa’s official recommendation is to avoid the war zone. Canada’s travel advisory urges Canadians to “avoid all travel” to Ukraine, warning “your safety is at high risk, particularly if you engage in active combat.”
Federal guidance for ministers adds that Ottawa “may not be able to provide any assistance to Canadian citizens who join militias or armies and are injured or captured by Russian forces.”
Huggett says that in a world at war, complacency is not an option.
“If you really want to make an impact, and you want to do things for the future of the entire world, you have got to do something.”
This is terrific reporting, very few Canadian media outlets are on the ground in Ukraine. Glad that Canadian Affairs is there!
“” A third — a mother from B.C. — tends to wounded recruits in a Donetsk-stationed penal unit. “” In WW2 the Germans and Russians had punishment ( or penal ) battalions which were just that. As described further down the article April’s men are former prisoners, which is very different !