Foreign fighters who belonged to the four international Legions will be assigned to other units, mainly assault battalions. A decision by the general staff which has sparked much criticism and incomprehension for units which have proven their value since their creation in 2022. Explanations of a change with profound ramifications for the Ukrainian army.

Published on: 02/13/2026 - 6:03 p.m.

Final clap for one of the most famous components of the Ukrainian army. The International Legions - comprising most of the volunteers from countries other than Ukraine - no longer exist, the Ukrainian Defense Minister confirmed Friday February 13 on X.

“They are reintegrated into other experienced brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces,” said account X of the ministry, which rejects the term dismantling.

Announcement on the sly

These are four units dependent on the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense whose fighters, mainly from Europe or Latin America, are in the process of being reassigned.

kyiv has never provided official figures for the number of foreign fighters in Ukraine, but these International Legions were brigades, which in the Ukrainian army represent between 400 and 600 soldiers per legion.

The announcement of their dissolution "is not a surprise", says Ryhor Nizhnikau, researcher specializing in Ukraine at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Rumors about the end of these International Legions have become more and more insistent since November 2025.

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The final decision would have been announced on the sly to the commander of the brigades concerned on December 31, 2025, reported Le Monde, one of the first media to have revealed these Ukrainian plans for military reorganization, on February 8.

On the sly, because the pill of these dissolutions-redeployment is difficult to pass. The advisability of getting rid of these brigades was questioned as early as November by Ukrainian military experts.

“This may give the impression that Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, wants to break what was working,” notes Glen Grant, senior analyst at the Baltic Security Foundation and specialist in Ukrainian military issues.

Military expertise and communications operation

The International Legions have, in fact, been defending Ukraine against the large-scale Russian invasion since the very beginning of the war in 2022 or almost. The first of these brigades was formed in April 2022. “It was Volodymyr Zelensky’s idea because many foreigners wanted to fight alongside the Ukrainians initially,” emphasizes Ryhor Nizhnikau. “I remember the queues in front of the Ukrainian embassy in London, even in the middle of the night, made up of men and women who wanted to join without there even being a recruitment campaign,” underlines Will Kingston-Cox, specialist on Russia and the conflict in Ukraine at the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) Verona.

These specialized brigades then appeared both as a good military idea and as a communications tool. “These legions made it possible to attract what the Ukrainian army was lacking at the time: a certain military experience in specific fields [war medicine, engineering, drones etc., Editor’s note] and know-how in the handling of Western weapons which were delivered to Ukraine,” explains Huseyn Aliyev, researcher specializing in the war in Ukraine at the University of Glasgow.

They also made it possible to demonstrate "the commitment of the Western public to Ukraine, while guaranteeing a certain visibility of the Ukrainian fight in the Western media", summarizes Will Kingston-Cox.

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In the end, this recruitment effort "created legions with a very diverse profile with around 30% foreigners coming from all over the world" who shared their experience with the Ukrainian soldiers working alongside them, explains Huseyn Aliyev.

These are also “units which benefited from a certain operational autonomy”, adds this expert. “They operate like modern units with a transparent decision-making chain. They use NATO military standards, while part of the units of the Ukrainian army are still based on a model inherited from the Soviet era,” underlines Ryhor Nizhnikau. Which, according to the experts interviewed, means a more opaque and authoritarian chain of command.

Since their creation, these legions have been deployed to defend Kharkiv, Vuledar, Bakhmut. They thus participated in most of the major battles of the Ukrainian conflict. Without having a major impact on the outcome of the battles, but they gained a reputation for good organization and "for suffering fewer losses than others", underlines Glen Grant.

“Military culture” problem?

Above all, these international Legions had enough to irritate Moscow to the highest degree. “The Russian army also uses foreign fighters, but it is rarely voluntary, unlike these legions of the Ukrainian army,” notes this expert. In other words, it gives the impression that defending Ukraine is a choice for foreign fighters, while fighting alongside the Russians is a compulsion.

So of course, the initial enthusiasm has faded and “a certain war fatigue means that there are fewer volunteers who want to fight in Ukraine”, underlines Huseyn Aliyev. This is also one of the reasons given by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to suggest that the International Legions had had their day.

Ukraine has never managed to reach the objective of 20,000 foreign fighters set at the start of the war, underlines Le Monde. The International Legions also suffered from defections and not only after particularly fierce battles on the front. At the start of the war, "certain units were led by particularly bad commanders and the officers on duty were no match for the soldiers of the legion", underlines Glen Grant. A bad experience which may have pushed some of these fighters not to continue their experience within the Ukrainian army.

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For the experts interviewed by France 24, the reason for this “redeployment” of foreign soldiers must be sought elsewhere. “It’s largely a question of military culture,” Glen Grant wants to believe. For him, the current Ukrainian military command "insists a lot on discipline and authority, which coexists with difficulty with units with a high degree of autonomy like the International Legions."

Furthermore, the Ukrainian army is in the process of reforming, which provides an ideal pretext for this dissolution of the international brigades. “It is a transformation to improve the efficiency of the units,” assures the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on X.

New cannon fodder, or heavy reinforcements?

These seasoned and often specialized foreign soldiers will “serve in the new assault battalions currently being created,” notes Ryhor Nizhnikau. Their experience should add value to these formations which are supposed to intervene in the most sensitive areas of the front. “On paper, it makes sense,” recognizes Ryhor Nizhnikau.

But “it all depends on how they are going to be integrated,” says Huseyn Aliyev. It's not easy to leave units that were functioning, with commanders who spoke English and orders explained in detail before going to fight. Especially if the assault brigades use these soldiers "like cannon fodder", fears Glen Grant.

Current assault formations also “often have a bad reputation,” assures Ryhor Nizhnikau. These are sometimes convicts who are assigned there under the orders of commanders who care little about human losses as long as the objectives are achieved.

"If these foreign soldiers are used according to their capacity, it can be a real plus. But it can also be very demotivating if the old methods of command are applied. In which case, these soldiers will leave the army at the first opportunity", concludes Glen Grant.

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