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The spiked podcast

322: Why I fought on the frontline in Ukraine | Macer Gifford

The spiked podcast

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Politics, Government, News, Society & Culture

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is the audio from a video we have just published on our YouTube channel – an interview with Macer Gifford. To make sure you never miss great content like this, subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/@spiked 

‘To fight evil.’ That’s why Macer Gifford gave up his comfortable life as a City of London currency trader to fight as an international volunteer in two major conflicts – first in Syria, and then in Ukraine. In 2014, he joined the Kurds in their battle against ISIS. In 2022, he helped Ukrainians fend off Putin’s Russia. Here, Macer reveals the perils of 21st-century warfare, recalls the joy of liberating Kherson, and explains why Ukrainians are still willing to risk it all for their freedom.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Fighting is the sort of ultimate act of solidarity with someone else.

0:03.5

You can send all the love and best wishes in the world, or you could actually go and live by your ideals and support people on the ground that need your help.

0:13.0

Zelensky did a bold thing by calling for international volunteers to join a so-called Ukrainian Legion.

0:19.0

The Russian line collapsed and we were able to take back

0:21.4

Hassan. How much personal peril of danger were you in at the time?

0:32.2

Hello, I'm Fraser Myers' deputy editor of Spikes. I'm delighted to be joined in conversation with

0:37.3

Mesa Gifford.

0:38.6

Welcome. It's good to be here. Mesa, you have been on the Ukrainian front line. You're something of a

0:45.4

serial international volunteer, which will come on to soon. Tell us, first of all, you've been in

0:53.0

Ukraine essentially since before the war started,

0:56.6

am I right in thinking?

0:57.6

That's correct.

0:58.6

Yeah.

0:59.6

So tell us about, first of all, those early days and then how you ended up on the front line.

1:03.5

I suppose in the early days of the conflict, I actually went out two weeks before the

1:08.6

war started, primarily because I was motivated by the

1:12.3

huge amount of press that we're all getting. The CIA and MI6 released information and data

1:18.3

that the Russians were mobilizing on the border. War was imminent. And to see where I could

1:25.0

assist or help local defenders, I decided to go out and perhaps start a medical

1:30.4

program and to engage with some of my friends who were already deployed out there.

1:34.7

In the end, it didn't necessarily work out because of the scope of the invasion, the size of it.

1:42.1

I mean, when I first arrived, I had a Ukrainian member of

...

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