Brazilians Fighting in War against the Ukraine Do Not Consider Returning to the Country

07/30/2018 - 12h44

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YAN BOECHAT

DONETSK

Arrested in the Ukraine since 2016, Brazil's Rafael Lusvarghi is the only foreigner jailed in Kiev accused of terrorism for fighting alongside the separatists supported by Russia.

Lusvarghi enlisted a few months after the conflict began in 2014. He became a soldier known in the forces that declared independence from the Ukraine in the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk, on the Russian border.

Between 10 and 15 Brazilians have fought against the Ukrainian army. At least two of them are still in the rebel provinces.

Some are seeking adventure and others, military training; there are also those who fight believing this is the last battle of the Cold War. One of them is a student of communication, former boxer, police officer and an activist of a far-left political party who took his 17-year-old son to experience what he believed was the war against American imperialism.

In 2014 Rodolfo Cunha Cordeiro, 30, a former security guard in Presidente Prudente (SP), arrived at the battalion with people from all over the world, most of them with no previous training. "I served with two other Brazilians, who ended up injured," says Cordeiro.

Folhapress Rodolfo Cunha Cordeiro or Rodolfo Magayver

He admits that he did not even know where Donetsk was, nor did he understand what the war was about.

"I engage in battle, but in general I stay at the back," says Cordeiro. He left the army after he broke ligaments in his knee. Like Lusvarghi he is considered a terrorist by the Ukraine.

He is now a citizen of the People's Republic of Donetsk. He proudly holds a passport that is not recognized by any country, but allows him to go in and out of Russia. He walks through Donetsk with nearly ten medals awarded for service in battle.

He has little contact with the other Brazilian in Donetsk, who is 28 years old and was wounded in combat twice and has difficulty to walk. He asked his name to be withheld. He also intends to keep on living in the rebel province. Both Brazilians come from middle-class families and say they had no opportunities in Brazil.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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