“I like war”

I have never in my life met a mercenary.

That changed when we gathered with colleagues to enjoy an ode to Ukrainian grit: fresh Odessa oysters and bubbles.

Seated at the table next to us was a group of Spanish-speaking men. They had traded the bubbles for a bottle of tequila, and and had brought a speaker that was playing bachata – every once in a while a song was just too good and you could spy some shy dance moves on the way to picking up more food.

It’s not unusual to hear foreign voices in the Kyiv. All the big NGOs are there, embassies are well staffed, there’s even the occasional lost tourist. We struck up a conversation.

I just like war

The group was made up of four men, Luis was young, but it seemed like he’d been given a leadership position. Extremely polite, he stood when he shook my hand and his slow Spanish was deliberate grace to my still-learning Spanish.

Alejandro and Samuel made no such allowances, speaking at 1000 kilometres an hour. Sebastian was the youngest, shy, and had suffered an injury to his right hand that had left him with two fingers that looked most like a lobster claw.

When we explained what we were doing in Ukraine, building houses from straw, Alejandro interjected breathlessly, eyes as big as saucers: “Construction? I love construction, my brother is in constrution, he makes good money, you can make good money in construction, me I don’t like construction, construction isn’t as good as WAR, I like WAR, that’s what I’m good at, don’t want to do anything but WAR”.

Every iteration of “WAR” was uttered with a firework worth of passion and energy.

Mercenaries get paid well in Ukraine. According to Ukraine’s Foreign Legion, a mercenary can expect to make $500 a month behind the frontline, $1200 a month for service in a dangerous zone, and up to $4600 a month for combat deployment. It’s unsure how many mercenaries are curently active in Ukraine.

I always wondered what made men pack up and seek out the war. The money is good, but maybe it’s just for the sheer love of it, as it seemed to be for Alejandro.

We bade our goodbyes, and shook each man’s hand. Sebastian hesitated in giving his right hand, self-consciously hiding it in his sleeve. I held out my hand, until he gave me his, and shook it.

*Names have been changed to maintain anonymity