“The unit I fought in was a group of a few hundred really tough guys from various Eastern European stadium teams. You can’t deny them the heart to fight,” said “Korek”, a football fan of Lechia Gdańsk and Pomezania Malbork in an interview with Hubert Kowalski in Gazeta Polska Codziennie (GPC).
“Korek” was initially involved in transporting aid to Ukraine organised by the Sergiusz Piasecki Foundation, which has been supporting war victims and Ukrainian soldiers since its inception. He is associated with “old” Lechia Gdańsk fans from the 1990s.
“Habits and experiences from Polish stadiums in the 1990s and early 2000s somehow are deep inside me to this day. That is why I quickly found myself in the new (old) environment. The team leader was my friend ‘Puma’, a fan of Dynamo Minsk. I fought in a Polish uniform,” he told GPC.
As he stresses, when he left, he was going to “fight the Russkies” rather than help the Ukrainians, to whom he had a critical attitude. Who did they turn out to be in reality, when fighting a common enemy? What drives supporters from other Inter-Mediterranean countries to fight in Ukraine? How do you overcome fear while on the front line?
You can read the whole article in Polish in Tuesday’s issue of Gazeta Polska Codziennie.