Aatu opens his suitcase at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport to reveal a green military backpack, a bulletproof vest, a radio telephone and the hymnbook of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
The 23-year-old is one of three young men interviewed at Yle Airport. The men said they were traveling to Ukraine as volunteers to join the country’s defense forces in the fight against the attacking Russian forces.
"Of course, it’s scary and exciting. But I’m ready for anything. If I weren’t, it wouldn’t have been worth leaving," Aatu declares.
He’s involved Keke, 26, which also flies to Ukraine. Yle has omitted the names and information of the men on their flights to protect their identities. The third young man did not want to give a statement to the media.
Keke says he knows " eight to twenty people" who leave Finland to fight alongside Ukraine. She is the administrator of a social media community made up of volunteers who exchange information about, for example, equipment, travel routes, and finding medical supplies in the country.
According to Keke, the number of people interested in the issue is growing and it is gathering new members every day.
"Many are willing to join, but they are hesitant to get equipment from there. We can make sure [if equipment is available] at the beginning of this week," he states.
Volunteers want to “help” the Ukrainians
Keke and Aatu plan to reach the Ukrainian border via Warsaw, Poland. Neither has visited Ukraine or participated in international peacekeeping operations. Both say they are going to Ukraine "help."
Keke reveals that he wrote letters and a will in case he does not return. "If the worst happens, it happened for a good reason," he states.
Asked if he would be ready to kill Russian soldiers, Keke replies "Unfortunately. But I try to look at it this way: I’m not going there to kill, I’m going to help."
There is a widespread perception among those seeking military action that foreign volunteers are not being sent to the front lines, but are acting to protect the forces, that is, to help protect soldiers, civilians, facilities, and equipment from threats.
However, there is no evidence to support this. In addition, sources show that Ukraine has abandoned some volunteers due to equipment shortages.
Keke says he followed Ukraine’s development even before the Russian invasion began. He said the decision to volunteer was an easy one, even though a close friend advised him not to do it.
"They said, Thou shalt not go. To this day, I have received messages urging me not to go. But I’m going."
Aatu says he has been interested in helping Ukrainians since Russia occupied Crimea in 2014. He was a minor at the time.
"I want to do something significant in my life. Now I don’t have a weird, basically boring employee’s life," he adds.
An estimated twenty Finns have been fighting on both sides of the conflict in eastern Ukraine since the beginning of 2014.
Ukraine urges foreign volunteers to join the fight
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on foreign volunteers to join the fight against Russian troops.
According to The Kyiv Independent, the country is assembling an international legion of volunteer fighters from different countries.
Zelensky has announced that 16,000 international volunteers have already signed up to defend Ukraine. According to international media reports, foreign fighters are arriving from all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Thailand, South Africa and European countries.
The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has stated that it has no information on how many Finns have joined the battle in Ukraine.
"The Foreign Ministry’s travel bulletin recommends leaving Ukraine immediately. The ministry’s ability to help Finns in the war zone is very limited." representatives of the ministry told Yle in an email.
According to a report by Helsingin-Sanomat, the Finnish Defense Forces do not recommend or advise Finns to seek to fight for a foreign cause.
Ideological motives
Not much is known about foreign fighters traveling to Ukraine at this stage, as the conflict is still in its infancy. Juha SaarinenVisiting researcher at EGMONT – Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels.
Saarinen suggests that the majority of foreign fighters in Ukraine appear to be from Eastern Europe and former Soviet countries. He estimates that about one-fifth of armed conflicts are of interest to or attract foreign volunteers.
In many cases, volunteers get into conflict because of a shared identity or ideology they experience. Saarinen said he believed that the fighters could now be united either by a common desire to defend Ukraine or to wage war against Russia.
"For ideological reasons, they may feel that they have a common identity with the Ukrainians. It may be based, for example, on the view that the West is now under an existential threat or that their European or Slavic brothers are under attack," he explains.
Keke, who says he did not sleep the night before leaving for Ukraine, warns potential volunteers not to make a hasty decision.
"Think again [the decision] two or three times. Because this is not a game. It’s far from the game."
Asked how many times he considered the consequences before making his own decision, however, Keke answers "Once."