Russian volunteer Andrei Kamayev arrived in war-torn eastern Ukraine in late September 2014, bursting with patriotic bravado and convinced that he was following in the footsteps of his grandfather — a Soviet intelligence officer in World War II — by fighting against “fascists and Nazis.”
Using terms propagated by the Kremlin to describe Ukrainian government forces fighting Russia-backed separatists, the 49-year-old Kamayev admits to other motives for joining up: he also wanted to help restore the “Russky Mir,” or Russian World, and stave off the perceived encroachment of NATO.
