The war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year after Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, has drawn foreign fighters from dozens of countries to the front lines. Among them is a small number of Irish citizens who chose to leave behind neutral Ireland and join the Ukrainian volunteer brigades.
Calvin Price, a 27-year-old from Blanchardstown, Dublin, is one of those volunteers and one of the few to speak publicly about his experience. Lying in a Lviv hospital with both legs lost to a landmine, he expresses no regret.
A Civilian’s Leap Into War
Price worked as a car valet and later owned a window tinting business in Dublin. In January 2024, he had no combat experience. By March of that year, on his birthday, he had sold his business and everything he owned, booking a flight to Ukraine.
The decision came after a sleepless night scrolling Instagram, where he saw a news interview with women who had been held in Russian captivity. “That stuff just hit a nerve with me,” he told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Two weeks later, he left behind his partner Maria, also from Dublin, and his successful business. He arrived in Ukraine, joining the volunteer brigades that absorb foreign fighters into a grinding war of attrition. For Price, the conflict is a fight against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “I sold everything, including my business, and came over to try and help,” he said.
“I would do it all again.” Over two years on the front lines, Price was shot before losing his legs to a landmine. From his hospital bed, he speaks without bitterness.
“I would do it all again to help defend the country against Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” he said. He now waits to begin the process of being fitted with prosthetic limbs. His story highlights the depth of personal sacrifice made by foreign volunteers who act on individual conscience without state backing.
A Complex Legal and Moral Landscape
Price is one of a handful of Irish people known to have joined the conflict. Another Irish volunteer, Mick O’Reilly, serves in the Ukrainian armed forces. Ireland maintains a policy of military neutrality, so citizens who fight in Ukraine do so as private individuals, without state sponsorship.
Under international law, volunteers are not considered mercenaries if they join a country’s official military forces. Ukraine grants them combatant status, which affords protections under the Geneva Conventions if captured.
Russia, however, treats captured foreign fighters as illegal combatants, a stance that has led to diplomatic tensions with several nations. The phenomenon of foreign fighters is not new. International brigades fought in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, and volunteers joined conflicts in Syria and Iraq on both sides more recently.
What sets Ukraine apart is the scale of state-organized international recruitment. Kyiv actively sought foreign expertise, particularly from former soldiers familiar with Western military systems.
This has drawn scrutiny from governments concerned about their citizens becoming casualties in a high-intensity conflict. For Price, the calculus was personal. He told the Irish Mail on Sunday, “It’s actually crazy how I ended up coming here,” describing how a single video on social media triggered a chain of decisions that led him to the front lines.
Now, as he waits for prosthetic limbs, his conviction remains clear: “I would do it all again.”
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