Kourosh Sehati was working for the UK-based Iran International TV station when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Now, the broadcast journalist aims to fight on the front lines in Ukraine, the Eastern European country he calls his “second home.”
Sehati is the first known Iranian to apply to join Ukraine’s Foreign Legion, a military unit of the armed forces composed of foreign volunteers. The Foreign Legion has not yet approved his application.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, Sehati said he wanted to defend Ukraine against what he called “the club of dictators and invaders.”
That was a reference, he said, to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his key allies, including Iran’s clerical rulers, the Belarusian authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, as well as North Korea and China.
The 46-year-old’s decision to fight in Ukraine was also deeply personal.
“I have an attachment to Ukraine because my wife is Ukrainian and our kids are half Ukrainian,” he told Radio Farda, adding that his family lives in London.
Sehati announced his decision to fight in Ukraine on March 18, writing on X that he had enlisted to “fight the criminal Putin and his backers.”
Russia 'Hurt' Iran
Beyond his personal ties to Ukraine, Sehati’s opposition to Moscow is rooted in Iran’s historical grievances against Russia.
“Russia has hurt Iran a lot over the last 200 years,” said Sehati, who worked for Voice of America’s Persian Service and holds US citizenship.
Persia and tsarist Russia fought a series of wars in the 19th century, culminating in Tehran ceding much of the Caucasus to Moscow.
The Russian Empire also vied for control of Iran’s natural resources and occupied Iranian territory.
In the mid-1940s, the Soviet Union supported short-lived ethnic Kurdish and Azeri republics in northwestern Iran. Although the republics were swiftly dismantled, they contributed to ethnic tensions that persist to this day.
Not All Iranians Support The Islamic Republic
Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Iran has supplied Moscow with drones that have been used to strike Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
While both Tehran and Moscow deny it, there is substantial evidence suggesting otherwise. There are also growing concerns that Iran could provide Russia with missiles for use in Ukraine.
Sehati said one of his motivations for enlisting was to challenge perceptions about Iranians.
“I’m trying to send a message of solidarity between Iranians and Ukrainians so that Ukrainians don’t associate Iranians with the Islamic republic’s actions,” he said.
A rights activist who was arrested several times for his political activities, Sehati fled Iran to Turkey in 2004. He was granted the status of political refugee and later moved to the United States.
Not Murder, But Self-Defense
Sehati was 10 when the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988 and has no prior combat experience beyond the two-year mandatory military service he completed in Iran.
Sehati said he is looking forward to receiving "professional training" and admitted he has never killed anyone in battle. But he is mentally prepared.
“It’s like when someone breaks into your home with a weapon and tries to attack you. What do you do?” Sehati said. “Defending yourself is legitimate self-defense, not murder.”
