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Official: thousands of foreign volunteers signed up to fight in Ukraine

Ukraine's Foreign Minister didn't name the home countries of the volunteers, saying that some of them forbid their citizens from fighting for other countries.

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 20,000 people from 52 countries have already volunteered to fight in Ukraine, where they will serve in a newly created international legion. He did not say how many of the foreign volunteers have arrived in Ukraine.

“The whole world today is on Ukraine’s side not only in words but in deeds,” Kuleba said on Ukrainian television Sunday night.

He did not name the home countries of the volunteers, saying that some of them forbid their citizens from fighting for other countries.

Kuleba also urged Ukrainians living in other countries to begin a campaign to push for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union.

Meanwhile, as Russian forces increased their shelling of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the West to strengthen sanctions.

In a video statement Sunday evening, Zelenskyy heaped criticism on Western leaders for not responding to the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement that it would strike Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, while telling employees of these defense plants not to go to work.

Credit: AP
People protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a rally outside of the White House in Washington, Sunday, March 6, 2022. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

“I didn’t hear even a single world leader react to this,” Zelenskyy said. “The audacity of the aggressor is a clear signal to the West that the sanctions imposed on Russia are not sufficient.”

Zelenskyy called for organizing a “tribunal” to bring to justice those who order and carry out such crimes.

“Think about the sense of impunity of the occupiers that they can announce such planned atrocities,” he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced Sunday that its forces intend to strike Ukraine’s military-industrial complex with what it said were precision weapons.

“We urge all personnel of Ukrainian defense industry plants … to leave the territory of their enterprises,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement carried by the state news agency Tass.

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