Get your soldier certificate. Join Ukraine’s International Legion. Earn €3,400 a month.
So offers a private tactical and security training company in Spain.
According to Euronews, G.O.A. Tactical, based in Lleida, is recruiting soldiers for Ukraine.
“Our company has contacts with defence ministries all over the world, including Ukraine. What we do is evaluate a person who is interested in fighting and give them the contacts so they can get in touch with them,” Francisco Galván, director and head trainer of G.O.A. Tactical, said.
The company, which also provides training for military and police units in Spain and Peru, according to its website, started recruiting for Ukraine after one of its previous trainees, who had joined the forces of the beleaguered country, returned to Spain for a rest with a request from Ukrainian authorities to return to the battlefield with a few more good men.
G.O.A. Tactical launched the offer a week ago and has already received 200 applications, the company told the media. Positions in the Ukrainian International Legion can pay from €1,800 per month for a job behind the front lines to €3,400 per month for a front-line job in an elite unit. Candidates must also have at least two years’ military, police, or private security experience. Finally, they have to pass a test of their soldiering and battlefield skills.
G.O.A Tactical, which also provides training for security forces in Africa, Spain, and Latin America, doesn’t operate as a kind of staffing agency for foreign armies. Instead, it evaluates a person’s battlefield readiness in a five-day course and issues those who pass a certification. The would-be soldier then contacts the foreign army himself.
“It is the volunteer who has to call them directly, but our contacts are waiting for him. He then shows the validation certificate, and he has the job,” Galván also told Euronews.
The evaluation costs €700, but those who pass have a soldier’s job with armies from Ukraine to Senegal secured. The course is not for novices, the company warns.
The toughest part of the test is a simulation of holding a strategic gain in position under constant bombardment. It requires going three days without a wink of sleep. This is when most trainees drop out.
This is the only company in Spain known to be helping to recruit volunteers for Ukraine.
Ukraine has been openly recruiting foreign fighters into the International Legion, which is supervised by the Ukrainian intelligence service, since March 2022.
