r/ForeignersinUAarmy

Short answer: because other guys fucked up a good thing before you.

What we did earlier was submitting docs for background check before the person even took off to Ukraine.

Like you arrive and the SBU background check is ready, you only need to do the stuff which doesn't take long.

Yet after dozens of no-shows (yes, including those who swore with their life they are so definitely coming, sent itineraries and whatnot), the Foreign Recruiting Centers only initiate the check once you are physically there.
There will be no moral to the story. It is what it is.

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Counter-question: I'm going to the US, how much money do I need? Sounds funny, right? The logic is about the same.

The amount of money you need to have UPON ARRIVAL IN UKRAINE depends on many factors, like desired level of comfort and protection, your planned timeline, your supposed role in the army etc.

To make it as straightforward as it goes, I will list your options in ascending budget order:

500 USD: you can theoretically survive with it, given some Foreign Recruiting Centers provide free of charge housing and board, yet highly recommended to stack more.

1000 USD: the bare minimum you definitely need to have with you. Will be enough if you go artillery as very little if any extra gear is realistically needed.

2000-3000 USD enough to buy some extra gear. So reasonable amount if you go drones or non-assault infantry. The upper end of this range is for those planning to attend drone courses.

If you go assault infantry, I won't even speculate cause it really depends on what will be provided by the unit in the first place and what you deem as reasonably sufficient.

Apart from the amount for artillery, these are my estimates, so comments/corrections from infantry or drone operators in Ukraine are welcome.

If you smoke or plan drinking before signing contract, add $$$ accordingly.

Have a least 50%, better more in cash to avoid trouble with bank cards. Well concealed in different parts of your clothing/gear which you have with you at all times. Never tell anyone the real amount you have. Never lend anyone, unless you are totally fine with never having it back.

Lot's of people asking lately - hey, I am talking to a recruiter from XXX brigade, any info on it? Mostly silence. Or very vague "heard the brigade is ok in general" or "heard it sucks".

The thing is - and I can't stress it enough - the Ukrainian Defence Forces are 1 000 000 heavy in personnel. Up to hundred of brigades are taking foreigners. It's like 500 battalions and 1500 companies. Brigade does play a role, yet is ultimately company level leadership which makes your life bearable or not. And you have virtually no chance knowing it before you are there.

Let's take an average Mike. He learnt quickly 3rd AK and Azov are cool. Ah yes, a little digression regarding good units. The thing is, government tends to ruthlessly scale them. Got a good battalion? Hmm we see you can afford to reject candidates. And we, the government, want every warm body we can get. So let's scale a good battalion to brigade. Brigade still popular? We'll make it Army corps then. What happens is a good unit gets hundreds and hundreds vacancies which they must close. And they can only do it fast if they compromise on standards.

So, back to Mike. He applied with the top units, yet didn't hear back or didn't pass the PT. He also learnt about a couple of assault units he should think twice before joining, so he rules them out. Now he is stuck with a giant grey zone of average units he could potentially join and desperately trying to find out if they are "good". Nothing wrong with it per se. Quite understandable from a human point of view.

Yet the reality is that all those units suck, one way or another. Supply sucks. Leadership most likely also sucks - Ukraine just doesn't have enough qualified leaders for a 1 million army. So you are most likely getting "more or less qualified". And the fact no one talks loud about - Mike probably also sucks. Not as a person. He is probably a good one. Yet: PT - more often than not subpar. Military experience - usually none. Commitment horizon - 6 months, maybe a year. Readiness to take risk - limited.

So just make peace with the idea your are jumping in a cesspit, cause you belong there. If you are jumping in a cesspit, does it really matter which one it will be after all?

Some of you reading this might think "hey that's big talk from someone who has it rather comfy now". The big difference is that it's my country, yes. Other than that I did a lot of cesspit swimming myself. Served with as a private in unit where exactly 50% were addicts and exactly 2/3 of vehicles were broken. My mortar battery commander had no idea what mils is. We were a bunch of retards put together by fate. We still did our job. Cause you know what's worse than a retarded unit? None at all. You can't man a 1000 km border with top notch units, it's not realistic.

So it's more or less like betting in a casino. Hey guys, 9 red, is it lucky? What about 12 black? Anyone won? You are betting your life. Best way to stay safe is stay at home. You still coming? So roll the dice and embrace the suck.

P.S. I get this one is controversial. Just my perspective I got after the years. You might disagree with it and it's ok.

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There is a HUGE shortage of drivers in the AFU. So some guys think "hey, I can do that". Nothing wrong with that, yet let's see why it is more complicated than it seems.

First, there are two sorts of driver vacancies: combat vehicle driver and supply vehicle driver.

Combat vehicle driver requirements (for most units, in descending priority):

1. You need solid technical skills. Ukraine doesn't have the luxury to require exact match in your experience, yet having similar background (i.e. tracked or wheeled) in your home military is strongly recommended. Your crew wants to be sure you can get the damn thing started and take them out when shit goes down. They won't take "I'm driver only, not a mechanic". Absolutely not.
2. Although some units can close one eye at your fitness test for experienced candidates, you still need to be able and willing to pull together with the crew. You drive a tank? You load ammo together. Howitzer? Same. Crews don't take princess-drivers well.
3. You should be able to memorize the routs. How do you infil? How do you exfil? You should either be very good with maps and memorizing, or have language skills, or both.

Supply vehicle

1. Awesome navigation skills - you will be expected to remember like a dozen locations and how to get to them without hints.
2. Language skills. Driver gets many different tasks and request. "Take a case of ammo from Serhiy at X location and hand it over to Mykola at Y location", "Hey Mike, here's Sasha, could you buy me a block of cigs and energy drinks"?. You are also expected to memorize people.
3. Technical skills - you are still expected to do basic maintenance of the vehicle.

So it's not just driving. It's much more than that.

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I will focus on sergeant promotion, as it is realistically the reasonable limit for now. You can be legally put in charge of a platoon as a sergeant. So I guess it will cover 99% of cases. There was an actual case in our battalion - a Ukrainian guy ran platoon fire direction centre for a couple of years. Just chose not to sign the "forever slavery and blank cheque for the Army" officer contract.

To be clear, in this post I mean actual promotions, not "hey we got a sgt vacancy, let's put some foreigner in it, it will make a good PR for us".

So things to consider:

1. Rank follows leadership. If a guy says he needs a rank to lead we now he won't cut it. Rank can add you some weight, yet if there was none to begin with, it won't help. So it needs to start with "let me handle it", "I'll sort it out", "I'll take care of that". Then the unit leadership, provided it's a proper unit, thinks "the guy is actually doing a good job, let's see if we got any sgt vacancies". Mind though, it might take quite some time, maybe a couple of years. Actual case in our battery: there is a talented young guy (Ukrainian). He got into fire direction center. A year passed as he learned stuff and we got confident he is fit for promotion. Then we look at our staffing table - no sgt vacancies. We did find a workaround though - one older guy was in sgt position - a solid man doing manual work, he really couldn't care less about his formal positions. Yet it is a real bureaucratical nightmare to demote someone. Still did it with the older guy's consent and put the young guy in sgt position. He still hasn't got the rank though cause he needs to absolve some courses and nobody has an idea when the courses are available. So the thing doesn't happen overnight.
2. We need a person who gets the job done, not a foreigners' ombudsman/trade union leader. It's okay to stand up for your people, yet there really is time and place for it. Focus on the mission, not making yourself popular.

Now the downsides which come with promotion:

1. Whoever of your subordinates fucks up, YOU get owned for it. Somebody got drunk? You take the blame. Lost something valuable? You didn't see it's safe. Posted dumb shit on social media? You must sort it out. Vehicle got damaged because of someone's on your team negligence? It's your fault. And yes you can legally have the damage amount deducted from your salary. It doesn't happen often, but it's possible.
2. You have little to no control of who is on your team and virtually no leverage to discipline them - at least at the start. The first year or so suck. You never chose the retard to be on your team in the first place? Well bring another guy in then. You can't? So work with the one you have then. Want to formally write him up? Unit doesn't want paperwork and bad statistics, so you are expected to "just talk to him". So what actually happens is the new sgt does quite some stuff himself at first. After the unit leadership gets confident the guy can handle it, he gets the license to kill. Like comes to unit leadership and says: "look I've been running this bunch of retards for six months. There's never been an issue of which you got to know, because I cleaned up all the mess. All in all they are tolerable, yet there is one douchebag is no use and is ruining it. I want him gone". Ooops - the guy is gone (reassigned or terminated contract). Everyone knows why and everyone knows who wanted it. New sheriff in town. It gets easier after that point.

Directly asking to remove someone is only advisable if you have 100% confidence in your higher-ups. You've got to be sure they will do it or at least handle the question discretely, which is by far not always the case, especially if the guy in question is a well-entrenched arsehole. You can drop some hints like "hmm I see you put X on my team for this mission. Can I rather have Y or no one at all?". That's it. The ball is theirs. You can see if they really have your 6.

All in all it's a long game and a lot of extra effort. Think if it's worth it.