He decided to go to war on a Sunday. Three days after the Russian attack on Ukraine, he announced his departure to his wife. Florent Coury became, after two days of travel by plane, train and bus, the first French integrated into the “International Legion” created by Kiev to fight the army of Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on February 27 “citizens of the world friends of Ukraine, peace and democracy” at “join the resistance to the Russian occupiers” and to join a special unit. “This is not just an invasion of Ukraine by Russia, this is the start of a war against Europe, against democracy, against basic human rights, against the rule of law and coexistence peaceful”, launched Mr. Zelensky. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba added that“together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin”. For Kiev, the International Legion is an anti-fascist resistance movement.
Commander Mamuka Mamulashvili did not wait until 2022 to join the war. Marked by the 2008 Russian aggression against his country, Georgia, he joined the Ukrainians in 2014 in the Donbass conflict between Kiev and pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists and Russia. “The then Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, warned that if Putin was not stopped in Georgia, Ukraine would be next. That’s exactly what happened, he says. So, for eight years, I have been fighting in Ukraine to defend democracy against tyranny. »
The Caucasian volunteer now commands a unit called the “Georgian Legion”. His military experience led Kiev to ask him to help create the new volunteer brigade. “The International Legion created by Zelensky will be formed on the basis of the Georgian Legion”, he confirms. The officer agrees to testify and put The world in contact with fighters on the condition of not revealing their whereabouts. Many of his men are already deployed on the front lines, while the new arrivals receive military training in an undisclosed location.
Married and father of three children
Florent Coury, who admits that his instructors are teaching him “to distinguish the end of the rifle from the butt”, is not the typical volunteer one encounters on the battlefield. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, married with three children, residing in Brussels, this 39-year-old man with no military background was until recently an executive at Renault, in the human resources department of the Flins factory (Yvelines). “I belong to a republican and social left”, he says. He is a member of the Printemps Républicain, the movement co-founded by Laurent Bouvet, says he is committed both against the far right and against political Islamism, and asserts himself “macronist”.
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