Iowa veteran fighting in Ukraine: ‘All these people want is to have a choice’

CARROLL, Iowa (KCRG) - (WOI) - An Iowan is fighting on the front lines of Ukraine.

Ryan O’Leary is a National Guard Veteran from Carroll in western Iowa. He has combat experience as a volunteer fighter in Iraq for four years.

Now, he has volunteered his services again because he said he felt Ukraine could use all the help it could get.

O’Leary said he knows the outcome of him fighting in Ukraine could mean death. But he’s willing to do it, so another country can have freedom.

“All these people want is to have a choice,” O’Leary said. “A choice in their government, a choice of how they live. The ability to have good-paying jobs and, you know, just freedom.”

O’Leary signed a contract with the Ukrainian government. He said he will be there until the end of the war on his own dime.

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