To Die with Such Men: Frontline Stories from Ukraine’s International Legion

by Shannon Monaghan

This book is Black Hawk Down meets Enemy at the Gates meets Band of Brothers, and it’s all true. It tells the story of what happens when careless Western politicians assume we’re living the ‘end of history’, until it turns out that the Great Game is back, uglier and more callous than ever before. It’s the story of the men who tried to fix those mistakes, at the risk—and sometimes loss—of their lives.

Shannon Monaghan follows a core group of Western volunteers in Ukraine, fighting together from the early days of the battle for Kyiv through to the last stands at Severodonetsk and Bakhmut. They arrived alone, but formed a family—back when nobody bothered to learn names, because they all expected to die. One of them was among the last men to leave the city of Bakhmut in the final days of May 2022.

These men knew very well that they’d be fighting without the NATO support they were used to. They knew the severe risks they would run, and the potential criticism they would face for fighting someone else’s war. But they also knew it was the right thing to do. This is their story.

Genres: Nonfiction

403 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2025

About the author

Shannon Monaghan is a historian of modern war.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hands down the best book that I have read this year. It follows the real-life exploits of a group of soldiers from the International Legion fighting the Russians in the Ukraine. Shannon Monaghan is also the author of A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men.

The author had direct access to members of this group and shows the gritty side of modern warfare. This book is about volunteer soldier and what they faced on the battlefield. The book does not go into detail about the motivation of members of the group but does provide sufficient insight. The book does not go into the causes of the war or strategic overviews. It is about the men.

I strongly recommend this book and would compare this book favorably with Band of Brothers and Black Hawk Down. Part of it also made me recall the Tom Hanks movie Saving Private Ryan. If you want a compelling read give this book a shot.

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about a group of largely Western volunteers in Ukraine. It's mainly a detailed description of various operations, rather than exploring motivations for fighting for another country (although you can glean a bit from their back stories).

It's far from describing glorious operations with momentous defeats over the Russians. Many of the operations described are poorly planned, risk or lose lives, and some are aborted. Everyone seems to lack proper kit or weapons, the regular Ukrainian military is often hapless, and most of the Russians are even worse! Basically, it's chaos!

The combatants are not just men off the street; they are elite fighters, and many have combat experience with NATO. The accounts of mainly urban warfare are highly detailed. Men's deaths are described fighting for individual buildings in a street, and the fact that anyone survives at all to tell the tale of battles under near constant fire in warehouses, people's back gardens and sheds seems incredible. Acronyms are thrown in all the time. The lack of a glossary is annoying. I gave up trying to keep track of them and just thought "piece of military equipment" whenever I saw a four-letter acronym and passed over with usually no idea of what it meant.

In between the operations are long periods of recuperation, recovery and waiting for the next battle. The volunteers are the ultimate adrenal junkies, whether they start off hating Russians they certainly end there. Some of them live, some of them die, but this is a description of what they did in the early months of the war.

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historian Shannon Monaghan follows a group of western volunteers, experienced soldiers who travelled to Ukraine to fight in the International Legion. She imbeds the reader into their units, following them blow-by-blow through their missions, giving the reader an insider's look into their experiences. While the soldiers' experiences are difficult and the content of this book is tough in that sense, Monaghan is a gifted writer and I could not stop turning the pages. I enjoyed the author's note at the end of the book, where she discussed how she connected with the soldiers and wrote this book. Highly recommended.

[Tom Mahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great view of some of the men who came to Ukraine and volunteered to help out with experience and combat capabilities. These men were thrown right in, and were faced with close combat in urban settings. The amount of firepower and technology at hand was amazing. The only drawback was the small sample of men, and bear in mind, this was early in the war. The large percentage of killed and wounded, and the intensity of the engagements was eye opening to say the least.

[Mads Floyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good secondary source collection of war memoirs, but I must say that the style is sometimes abrasive and not very imaginative.