PARTICIPANTS WANTED – Have you participated in combat zone activity in the Ukranian war after February 2022?
I am looking for participants in an anonymous study concerning Foreign Fighters’ role and their view of themselves in the Ukranian defence war from 22 February 2022 onwards.
See additional information below and click the button to sign up!
Basic information
The main aim of the study is to shed light on the phenomenon of Foreign Fighters and especially to understand the motives and motivations behind engaging in combat activities as an international participant, based on free will and personal choice.
In the concept of Foreign Fighters in this study are included only individual participants, who have personally made the choice to participate in combat. Foreign Fighters are in this study, for ethical reasons, limited only to participants who have chosen to fight for the Ukranian side.
Persons not included in the concept of Foreign Fighters in this study include:
- Members of National Armed Forces’ International corps (e.g. French Foreign Legion)
- Citizens of Ukraine or persons with close family ties to Ukraine*
- Members of paramilitary groups participating in combat as auxiliary units
- Persons not participating in combat zone activity (e.g. NGO representatives)
*Relevance of family ties is decided on a case-by-case basis
Background information
The study on Foreign Fighters in the Ukranian defence war 2022- is a part of a Master’s thesis in Sociology at the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
The researcher
I am a Bachelor of Social Science (Sociology) from the Swedish School for Social Science at the University of Helsinki. My main interest are in Military Sociology, and Migration and Ethnicity studies. I have a background as an active reservist and I have functioned as a military instructor for voluntary reservist training for the Finnish Defence Forces as well as the Finnish Defence Training Association MPK. My original branch was in the Coastal Artillery, whereas I currently am active mostly in training the Coastal Jaeger affiliated light infantry voluntary reservist troops as well as other functions for the Finnish Navy on-shore operations.
- Compulsory Military training: Finnish Gulf Marine Defence Command, Finnish Navy 1999
- Coastal Artillery NCO course I/99, best in class, promoted to rank of Petty Officer 2nd class 1999
- Voluntary Military Instructor (Finnish Defence Forces and Finnish Defence Training Association) 2019-
- Petty Officer 1st class (NATO OR-6) 2019
- Over 50 days of voluntary refresher training of which most as instructor or drill leader
- Bachelor of Social Science (Sociology) 2023
- Bachelor’s thesis: ”What is defence will and how is it built? An analysis of the Finnish general defence will, its rise and constitution”
- Master’s student in Sociology 2023-