Ukraine appeals for foreign volunteers to join fight against Russia

Interested volunteers have been told to contact the defence attache of the Ukrainian embassies in their home countries.

The UN says the three-day-old Russian invasion on multiple axes has already claimed 64 civilian lives.

A small but growing number of Ukrainians living in the UK have made plans to go back to resist the invasion, including veterans of the war with Russia since 2014, community leaders told the Guardian earlier this week.

About 1 million Ukrainian Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and 80% of the remaining Jewish population of 500,000 is believed to have migrated to Israel after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, meaning that for many in Israel, the new war resonates deeply.

The Ukrainian embassy in Tel Aviv did not respond to a request for information about how many people have signed up, but one Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldier told the Walla news website on Sunday he was planning to fight in Ukraine after his demobilisation.

Israel had budgeted 10m NIS (£2.31m) for helping Jewish Ukrainian refugees and protecting Jewish institutions in the country, the defence ministry said. Preparations were being made for a new wave of immigration from Ukraine to Israel of 10,000-15,000 people in the coming weeks.