When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Sandra Andersen Aira knew what she had to do: drop everything and fight for Ukraine, a country she'd never been to before.
May 20, 2022

Sandra Andersen Aira, a former member of the Sámi Parliament of Norway, watched in horror and disgust as the rest of us did as Russia invaded. A week later she was in Ukraine, enlisting in the International Legion as a combat medic as she had prior medical training. According to Aira, it took only 24 hrs from the time she decided she must go, contacted her embassy for approval, and landed in Ukraine, a country she'd never been to before.

Judging by her Instagram, she is somewhere on the frontlines. Because she was well-known in Norway, she was identified online and shows her face in pictures and in video. The rest of her group, "The Dirty Dozen" as they call themselves, do not.

Source: Libertea

Sandra Andersen Aira arrived in the Ukrainian capital about a week after the start of the war, Anton Gherashenko said in a post on his Twitter account. "She had never been to Ukraine before and went to Kyiv, enlisting as a combat doctor in the International Legion," he added.

The former Norwegian parliamentarian is married to a professional American soldier. Sandra Andersen Aira is 35 years old and a fisherman. Between 2017 and 2021, she was a member of the Sámi minority parliament in Norway. After completing her term in parliament, she commuted between the United States and Norway, taking care of her fishing business. In July 2021 he settled in the USA.

In an interview with Norwegian NRK television, Sandra Andersen Aira told James Reese Staley, a 28-year-old professional soldier, of her "great love of life" in the United States.

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