It’s common in Ukraine to hear soldiers and civilians rue the fact that Russian aggression destroyed a lot in the region. "This is a result of Putin’s war,” said a Ukrainian soldier looking at the ruins of an Orthodox monastery in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region to CNN. “As a Christian, this is very offensive to me,” he further added.


The soldier who goes by the call-sign ‘Caesar’, is among hundreds of Russian soldiers if not thousands, who changed sides to fight from the Ukraine side.


It’s striking to know that hundreds of soldiers fighting to keep the town of Bakhmut, the current epicenter of the war, in Ukrainian hands, are Russian. The soldier, who spoke to the media house on the condition of anonymity, said, “From the first day of the war, my heart, the heart of a real Russian man, a real Christian, told me that I had to be here to defend the people of Ukraine,” Caesar explains. “We are now fighting in the Bakhmut direction, this is the hottest part of the front.”


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“After the (Russian) mobilization (in September), Putin threw all his forces (at Bakhmut) in order to achieve a breaking point in the war, but we are putting up a fierce defensive fight,” Caesar says.


Living a few miles away from the battleground amid the constant thuds and explosions, Caesar’s commitment is unflinching. “The fighting is very brutal now,” says Caesar as he does not regret his decision to join Ukraine’s foreign legion.  


He wanted to sign up early in the conflict but he could only leave his home country, with his close family, and join the Ukrainian military in the summer. “It was a very difficult process,” he added. “It took me several months to finally join the ranks of the defenders of Ukraine.”


His family also moved to Ukraine, where he considers them to be safer. According to Caesar, around 200 Russian citizens are currently fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against their own country’s army, reported CNN.


“Yes, I kill my countrymen, but they have become criminals,” he says. “They came to a foreign land to rob and kill and destroy. They kill civilians, children and women.” “I have to confront this,” he added.


“I am fighting a noble fight and I am doing my military and Christian duty; I am defending the Ukrainian people,” Caesar said to CNN. “And when Ukraine is free, I will carry my sword to Russia to free it from tyranny,” he further said.


A self-confessed opponent, he calls Russia a “tyrannical regime” headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moreover, he calmed to have shot at least 15 Russian soldiers on the battlefield. 


They are lives he did not pity and killings he does not regret, he added.