‘I could not be part of this crime’: the Russians fighting for Ukraine

‘I knew I wanted to go and defend Ukraine,’ says a former top official at Russia’s Gazprombank. He is not the only one standing against his own country’s warmongering, writes Pjotr Sauer

Ukrainian soldiers approach a trench that had been used by Russian soldiers as they retake an area on the outskirts of Kyiv in April. For weeks after leaving Russia for Ukraine, the former vice-president of Gazprombank spent his days trying to convince officials to provide him with Ukrainian documents and allow him to sign up for military service in the Ukrainian army to fight against a country where he had spent most of his adult life. File photo: AP/Rodrigo Abd

Walking around Kyiv in his new Ukrainian military attire, Igor Volobuyev felt as if he finally fulfilled his purpose.

For weeks after leaving Russia for Ukraine, the former vice-president of Gazprombank spent his days trying to convince officials to provide him with Ukrainian documents and allow him to sign up for military service to fight against a country where he had spent most of his adult life.