To Die with Such Men
Frontline Stories from Ukraine’s International Legion
True stories from the Western volunteers serving in the Ukrainian International Legion fighting Russia on the frontline.
This book is Black Hawk Down meets Enemy at the Gates meets Band of Brothers, and it's all true. It's about what happens when Western politicians carelessly assume we're living the 'end of history', until the Great Game comes back, uglier and more callous than ever. It's about men who tried to fix those mistakes, at the risk – sometimes loss – of their lives.
Shannon Monaghan follows a core group of Western volunteers in Ukraine, fighting together from the early battle for Kyiv through to the last stands at Severodonetsk and Bakhmut. They arrived alone, but became a family – back when nobody bothered to learn names, because they all expected to die.
These men knew they'd be fighting without the NATO support they were used to. They knew the danger they faced, and how they might be criticised for fighting someone else's war. But they also knew it was the right thing to do. This is their story.
Shannon Monaghan PhD is a historian of modern war educated at Yale University and Boston College, and author of A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men. She has interned in international arms transfers at the US State Department, worked in strategy consulting and data analytics, and taught writing at Harvard University.
