“Then I took up arms”: Why this Swiss is fighting in Ukraine Police take Greta Thunberg into custody after further protests

The mouthpiece of the hookah goes from one to the other, and in between they talk about precision guns. “I make my own ammunition with a machine,” explains the athletically built man with the gray mustache. “You can then, for example, put as much gunpowder in the cartridge case as is ideal for the next use.”

On the other side of the table is a Ukrainian in civilian clothes – a member of a special police unit. He listens well and occasionally talks about his own experiences as a sniper.

The chic bar in the center of Kiev is a popular meeting place for western helpers and mercenaries. For example, there is a very young paramedic from Canada, in the uniform of the Ukrainian army.

The man with the gray mustache wears two army green fleece jackets on top of each other. On the lower part of the jacket, which is invisible from the outside, there is an insignia of the Ukrainian Spetsnaz, a special unit of the security forces whose name dates back to Soviet times, on the upper arm.

Avi Motola is 47 years old and a Swiss national. He called “Sniper”, so Sniper, for an elite Ukrainian unit “worked”, as it is customary in the country, when one goes to war and fights. Now Motola is a bit irritated waiting for his next order, but that is proving more difficult than expected due to the unbridled Ukrainian bureaucracy.

A carpenter from Schaffhausen

Motola grew up in the canton of Schaffhausen and trained as a carpenter. He then lived in Israel for many years. Motola is Jewish and goes in and out of one of the synagogues in Kiev. They know him there. He is aware that, as a Swiss citizen, he could be prosecuted for “foreign military service” under the Military Penal Code, but he cares little. “I don’t plan to travel to Switzerland,” he says, and given Russia’s war of annihilation against Ukraine, there are more important cases than Swiss legal paragraphs.

It is surprising that a Swiss-Jewish fighter of all people has reported in Ukraine. Because it was not so long ago that the media was concerned about the possible presence of Swiss neo-Nazis in Ukrainian combat units. However, since the Russian invasion last February no migration of neo-Nazis to Ukraine observed – neither from Switzerland nor from other European countries.

Just last summer, the Bundesrat announced that it did not know how many Swiss fought against the Russians in Ukraine. Instead of the dreaded neo-Nazis, a Jew from Schaffhausen has now joined the Ukrainian army.

Safer as a Jew in Kiev than in Zurich

Avi Motola shows a video of a skirmish in a forest on his mobile phone. In it, he can be easily recognized by a tattoo on his wrist. He also has an arrow, a so-called Tyr rune, tattooed on his forearm. It is part of the emblem of a unit Motola fought in. Tyr was the Norse god of war, which is why the rune is also popular with many right-wing extremists. It was also used as a badge in the Third Reich.

Was he confronted with neo-Nazis in Ukraine? “Yes, there are, but they represent a very small minority,” Motola replies. When he confronts people with far-right tattoos like swastikas or black suns about being Jewish, their arguments usually quickly collapse. “First of all, they are patriots and not neo-Nazis. Many have no real understanding of what these symbols mean. And one thing has to be said very clearly: if I walk around in the Ukraine with a yarmulke on my head, I am much less likely to be approached in a strange way than in Berlin or Zurich, for example.”

In addition, as an elite soldier, he is usually treated with great respect. We can see this in a Kiev pub frequented by many western mercenaries. An American in Ukrainian uniform and a second foreign fighter rise from their table at the sight of Motola and greet him in awe.

That brought Motola into the fray

Shortly after the beginning of the Russian invasion Motola came to Kiev with an aid organization. Two events were decisive in his decision to say goodbye to humanitarian aid and to fight from now on.

There was a six- or seven-year-old girl whose chest was disfigured by Russian marauders outside Kiev before they killed her. And then Motola was there when civilians had to be evacuated through a “humanitarian corridor”. But the Russians then fired on the displaced.

“After that, the only option I had was to fight the Russians with guns.”says Motorola. “I worry when innocent civilians are tortured, slaughtered and buried in mass graves.”

Motola shows a photo of himself and some fighters in Ukrainian uniforms. The boss, a giant with a facial tattoo, is an Israeli who has converted to Islam. The men are not carrying the Soviet-era AK-74 assault rifles commonly used in the Ukrainian armed forces, but SCAR rifles made by Belgium’s Fabrique Nationale, a weapon developed specifically for special operations forces. His team was responsible, among other things, for sabotage actions behind Russian lines.

Meanwhile we are in a restaurant ordering something to eat. The young waiter knows Motola, he knows he has good connections in the army. “Can you please help me?” he asks. My brother is also a soldier. But I haven’t heard from him in a long time and I’m worried.”

The Swiss asks for the name and writes to a friend who can inquire about the correct place in the military hierarchy. After half an hour the answer comes: the brother is dead or captured, no one knows for sure. Motola is depressed: “How am I supposed to explain that to this boy?”