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61-Year-Old Grandfather From Edinburgh Joins the Fight
Published 2 years ago
A 61-year-old grandfather from Edinburgh, Scotland has joined the Ukrainian military to help defend the city of Kyiv against Russian forces.
Volunteers from around the world have started showing up in Ukraine over the last few days. In some cases the intentions of those individuals are good, and in others the intentions are clearly to chase clout for social media. You'll know the difference between the two when you see it pretty quickly, because the volunteers who are featured in videos like this one most likely won't be seen again until the conflict is over. They'll be moved out to the front-lines where they can be actively trusted to work towards the goal of the force they're volunteering for.
In that same note, the second group of people hasn't gone unnoticed by the Ukrainian government it appears. On TikTok today we've already seen "volunteer" fighters set up in their own compound where they can film TikTok and Instagram videos to their heart's content posing in front of expended rockets or with empty AK-47s. We saw this same thing happen with the YPG in their volunteer units. They would quickly determine if the person was serious, or just their to get social media clout, then assign them to proper units located in areas where they couldn't get themselves or someone else killed.
If your favorite TikTok influencer who "volunteered" for the Ukrainian army is in a firehouse looking building with a lot of sandbags covering the front window, there's a good chance he or she was one of the clout chasers. That appears to be where the Ukrainians have set up their volunteer clout chaser's brigade from what we've seen so far. Good on the Ukrainians for being able to tell the difference, the last thing they need is BroVet#69420 filming a TikTok dance while Russian armor is maneuvering on them.
