Call Sign Condor: Latino Soldiers Fighting in Ukraine

Panama does a favor for a fellow soldier and, inadvertently, meets a Ukrainian woman with whom he falls in love. As he gets to know her family, he becomes immersed in Ukrainian culture, language, and traditions.Meanwhile, a translator develops deep bonds with the Latino soldiers he works with, and a commander with the Ukrainian army says he would be nothing without his Latino “Stormtroopers”.As the war drags on, a mutual respect and appreciation grows between the Ukrainian people and many of these

Condor arrives in Ukraine knowing no one and unable to speak or read the language. Despite never having held a rifle before, he enlists in the Ukrainian army. He signs a contract, goes through his first military training, and heads to line zero: the frontline in eastern Ukraine, facing the enemy.In this second episode of Call Sign Condor, our protagonist meets Panama, another Latin American soldier, in the trenches. Together, they share a brush with death, and experience the war in ways that will

We meet Condor, which is not his real name. It’s his military call sign. Condor was an IT specialist back home but, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he felt an unexplainable pull to join the fight alongside Ukrainian soldiers. It’s a decision that shocked his friends and his family. He’s now been in the country for three years, and even he still struggles sometimes to understand why he enlisted.Condor is among the thousands of Latin American soldiers who have joined Ukraine’s

Why would someone decide to risk their life for a country that is not their own? What might they be searching for? Through the stories of our protagonist, Condor, and his fellow soldiers, this podcast takes us inside the lives of Latin American men and women who’ve been fighting in the war in Ukraine. Through their experiences of fear, loss, and belonging — even falling in love — host Carolina Chimoy explores what brought these soldiers to the front, how they’ve experienced the war, and what they've