The Mad and the Brave: The Untold Story of Ukraine’s Foreign Legion

With real-life echoes of SAS Rogue Heroes – this is an astonishing account of Europe’s biggest major conflict, told through the eyes of a ragbag collection of foreign fighters

Three days after Russian tanks roll into Ukraine, President Volodymr Zelensky issues a desperate appeal for foreign military volunteers to help defend his country. Thousands answer the call from all over the world: some of them experienced soldiers, others novices who’ve never held a gun before.

Among their ranks are high-minded idealists, adventure-seekers bored with civilian life, and ex-criminals seeking redemption – all risking their lives against the world's most vicious superpower. Some flee at the first sign of trouble, others become heroes; many are killed, and a few turn their guns on each other.

This is their story – often terrifying, often tragic, sometimes comic, and sometimes glorious…

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Colin Freeman (Author)

I'm a British journalist. Born and raised in Scotland, I started my career on the Grimsby Evening Telegraph in 1994, then moved to the London Evening Standard. After a disastrous spell as local government correspondent, I went to post-Saddam Iraq, where I picked up work for The Sunday Telegraph, which later made me chief foreign correspondent.

I spent the next 12 years covering stories across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. I was once shot in the backside in Iraq, and was kidnapped by pirates in Somalia for six weeks. Since leaving The Telegraph in 2016  (okay, made redundant...) I've returned to freelancing. I now contribute to The Telegraph magazine, The Economist, The Spectator, the BBC's From Our Own Correspondent, The British Journalism Review, Tortoise Magazine, The Lady, Country Life and pretty much anywhere else that will have me.

My latest book is "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, the mission to rescue the hostages the world forgot", which will be published by Icon Books on March 11 2021. It tells the story of three ships' crews who were hijacked during the Somali piracy crisis, but whose employers lacked the money to pay ransoms to get them freed. As a result, they were stuck in captivity for up to five years, until Colonel John Steed, a former British army officer, took it upon himself to get them out. My interest in this story arose partly because of my own experience of being held hostage. My six weeks in captivity pales in comparison to what these three ships' crews endured.

I've also written two other books of non-fiction. "The Curse of the al-Dulaimi Hotel (and other half-truths from Baghdad" is about life in post-war Iraq. "Kidnapped - life as a Somali pirate hostage" is about my experience of being abducted by pirates. For further details see the "Books" section of this website or go to my Amazon author page.