Under a foreign flag: Canadian veterans explain why they're fighting for Ukraine

In Afghanistan, he was nicknamed Wali.

And the name stuck for the former sniper with the Royal 22e Regiment, who — earlier this week, in the dead of night — crossed the border into Ukraine from Poland, answering a call from Ukraine's president for a foreign legion to help repel the Russian invasion.

The border was a surreal experience, even for a former Canadian soldier used to the unpredictability of war in the sun-scorched grape fields of Kandahar. Wali said he and the three other former Canadian soldiers who made the journey with him were greeted with hugs, handshakes, flags and photos by Ukrainians after they crossed the border.

"They were so happy to have us," said Wali (CBC News has agreed to identify him only by his nom de guerre to protect his family's safety). "It's like we were friends right away."

Wali wouldn't say exactly where he crossed the border. He said he was struck by the tide of refugees washing up in Poland.

There were buses everywhere, he said, and people bundled against the cold trudging on foot toward the checkpoint and safety. On his way deeper into Ukraine, he said he saw scattered bits of garbage and empty vehicles abandoned by their owners — who apparently hiked the final few kilometres over the frozen frontier.

The sight of people whose lives have been ripped apart by war touches everyone but it digs a little deeper for soldiers and veterans, who witness such scenes with more painful regularity.

"I want to help them. It's as simple as that," said Wali, who also did a stint as a foreign fighter with the Kurdish forces which battled Islamic State extremists in northern Iraq several years ago.

"I have to help because there are people here being bombarded just because they want to be European and not Russian."

Since crossing into Ukraine, he and the other veterans have taken shelter in a partially renovated home. They are going through the final steps of linking up with Ukrainian authorities who want to place them with the army's territorial battalions — the recently reorganized reserve unit of citizen-soldiers, a force the country had hoped eventually to build up to 10,000 officers and 120,000 volunteers.

The journey from life as a civilian computer programmer with a young family in Canada to the danger and uncertainty of the biggest war Europe has seen in seven decades has been nothing short of mind-bending, Wali said.

"A week ago I was still programming stuff," he said. "Now I'm grabbing anti-tank missiles in a warehouse to kill real people …That's my reality right now."

Wali will miss his son's first birthday this week. He called it the "hardest part" of the decision to join the fight in Ukraine. His wife was opposed to the idea, he said: "You can imagine what she said and how she thinks."

CBC News has been in contact with half-a-dozen Canadian veterans in various stages of joining the fight in Ukraine. Most were unwilling to speak on the record.