‘For me, this is personal.’ Some in Israel join Ukraine’s defense.

Outside the black iron gates of the Ukrainian Embassy in Tel Aviv, the days are punctuated by a parade of people who immigrated to Israel from Ukraine as children or teenagers. They are anxious for information about how they can volunteer to fight for a country they also see as home.

“For me, this is personal,” says Anatoly Dumansky, age 24, who identifies as both Ukrainian and Israeli. He immigrated here when he was 7 and still has family in Ukraine. “I haven’t slept for days. I’d rather be there than here with no way to help.”

In a post on social media (that was later removed), the Ukrainian Embassy had called on those who wanted to “defend the sovereignty of Ukraine” to contact them about volunteering to fight.

“I know what a gun is and how to shoot,” says Mr. Dumansky, who served as an infantryman in the Israeli army. “I think people who know what they are doing should help.”

Most of those showing up are, like Mr. Dumansky, veterans of the Israel Defense Forces. But not all are Ukrainian Israelis. One is a 72-year-old Druze man, a retired IDF captain who drove hours from his village in northern Israel to sign up, declaring, “I want to fight. I’m a soldier!” Another is a former U.S. paratrooper from Atlanta, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The original call to “join the defense of Ukraine, Europe, and the world” came from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in besieged Kyiv. On Thursday he said 16,000 foreigners had come to help rebuff the invading Russian army.

Her parents are proud

Among those already on the ground in Ukraine is Diana, a 21-year-old from Rishon Letzion, a Tel Aviv suburb.

Diana, who prefers to be identified only by her first name, arrived Thursday together with her Ukrainian-born boyfriend and six other Israeli friends. Right away, she says, they were posted to a Ukrainian army camp and given uniforms and supplies.

Diana herself was born in Moscow and immigrated to Israel with her family when she was 7. She says she’s ashamed of “the hate that comes from Russia, my motherland, toward Ukraine.”

“What motivated me to come to Ukraine and help are the horrors that I saw in the field,” she says. “The fact that children and the sick are bombed by the Russians. ... I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t come here and give any help that I can provide.”

Diana is a medic and wants to put her skills to use. Her parents, she says – even her father who has been a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin – are proud of her, although deeply worried. “They understand why we are here and they know that this is important,” she says.

There are no numbers available on how many people from Israel have gone to Ukraine to fight. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Embassy declined to comment on the issue, citing its sensitivity.

On Thursday, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson said foreign fighters in Ukraine would be prosecuted as criminals should they be caught by Russian troops, claiming they would not be protected by any rights provisioned under international humanitarian law as prisoners of war. But according to Sari Bashi, an international human rights lawyer, volunteers who join the Ukrainian army, even if they do not hold dual Ukrainian citizenship, are entitled to POW protections as long as they are not compensated as mercenaries.

He can’t bear to tell his wife

Among those who came to the embassy in Tel Aviv Wednesday was a 45-year-old Ukrainian Israeli named Slava. He only offered his first name.

At dawn that morning he had taken his passport out of his bedroom while his wife was still in bed, half-asleep, and then set off on the 90-minute drive from the port city of Haifa, where they live with their son. He did not dare tell her where he was going, or why.

His mother lives in his hometown near Kharkiv, the city in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the worst fighting in the war. “She’s under missile fire right now, reaching only with difficulty the hallway of her building for shelter,” he says.

“We know what wars are – we have had them here with missiles falling. But here we have proper shelters, even a safe room in your home. But there? There’s nothing like that there.

“And here [in Israel] there are not tanks on the streets. But look at Kharkiv, a city of 1.5 million people, and suddenly from all sides there are tanks. I feel like I’m dreaming this. It can’t be real.”

Slava says he’s not deterred by the idea that the Ukrainian army might eventually be unraveled by the fighting and forced into guerrilla style militias. He served in the IDF, but declines to say what unit.

“Wherever we are needed, we will go,” he says.

After waiting about two hours for a meeting inside the embassy, he emerges, a smile on his face. He was flying out later that day, he says.

Will he now tell his wife and go to her to say goodbye in person?

“No, no,” he says, shaking his head. “If I do that, I’d never be able to go.”

Ukrainian frustration with Israel

Gestures of Israeli solidarity with the people of Ukraine have reached Mr. Zelenskyy, specifically a photo of a group of Jewish men praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, wrapped in the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag.

“That picture amazed me,” said the Ukrainian president, who is Jewish. “I say all credit to the people who did that. They prayed [for us].”

But Mr. Zelenskyy has had different words for Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has come under fire both domestically and abroad for not being more outspoken in his condemnation of Russia.

Mr. Bennett has voiced support for the Ukrainians, sent humanitarian aid, and said Israel would be willing to mediate between Ukraine and Russia. On Saturday he flew to Moscow for a three-hour meeting with President Putin before continuing on to Berlin to brief German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, all the while maintaining contact with Mr. Zelenskyy.

Earlier, Israel declined a U.S. request to cosponsor an anti-Russian resolution at the U.N. Security Council, before days later joining in the General Assembly’s overwhelming but more symbolic condemnation.

Israel finds itself in a delicate diplomatic position because of Russia’s dominant presence in Syria where Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group that is an avowed enemy of Israel, is seen as posing a threat. Israel relies on Russia to look the other way when it uses Syrian airspace to carry out strikes against Iranian proxy forces stationed there.

“I spoke to the prime minister of Israel,” Mr. Zelenskyy said Thursday. “And I’m telling you candidly, and this might sound a little insulting, but I do think I have to say it: Our relations are not bad, not bad at all.

“But relations are tested at times like these, at the hardest moments, when help and support are needed. And I don’t feel that he [Mr. Bennett] is wrapped in our flag.”

New friends

In line outside the embassy trying to get more information about volunteering is the former paratrooper from Atlanta, who asks that his name not be used. The 35-year-old U.S. veteran has thick, muscular arms and a shaved head. His military specialty was sharpshooter.

He immigrated to Israel earlier this year, hoping to join the Israeli army, but was rejected because of his age.

After he befriended Mr. Dumansky outside the embassy, the two decided to travel to Ukraine together. Wanting to be prepared for their arrival there, and uncertain what equipment and gear the Ukrainian army would be able to provide, they set out together to go shopping.

First they bought boots, gloves, and neck warmers, as well as shirts for layering in the cold. Later they headed out to a military supply store in hopes of finding body armor.

The American says he sees the Russian invasion of Ukraine as nothing less than evil. His motivation for volunteering and contributing his military know-how is simple.

“When you have a chance to stand up to a bully in the world,” he says, “you take it.”