Rhee Ken reportedly given leadership position in Ukrainian army

Screen capture of Anton Gerashcheknko, an official advisor for the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine's Tweet about Rhee Ken. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Former Korean Navy special warfare officer-turned-YouTuber Rhee Ken has reportedly been given a leadership position in the Ukrainian military.

Rhee, known for his military training series “Fake Men” on YouTube, claimed he and a number of men traveled to Ukraine to serve as part of a volunteer army in the battle against the Russian invasion in early March.

Anton Gerashchenko, an official advisor for the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, posted on Twitter on May 16 that the Ukraine military “has reportedly placed [Rhee Ken] in leadership position and given him a lot of leeway in planning missions against Russian forces.”

Gerashchenko wrote that Rhee was given such a position “due to his special operations experience.”

The tweet was posted along with several photographs of Rhee and a link to an English article about him. Gerashchenko added that Korea “banned its citizens from entering Ukraine so [Rhee] would get arrested upon returning home.”

In a recent interview with Ukrainian weekly Novoye Vremya, Rhee said he “expects to be arrested at the airport when he goes back to Korea.”

“It’s illegal under Korean law to be in Ukraine now,” he said. “If I go back, I’ll be arrested at the airport because I participated in the war. I am planning to receive many official documents from the Ukrainian government, and I hope this helps my trial,” Rhee said.

The Korean government implemented a travel ban on citizens traveling to Ukraine from Feb. 13. By law, anyone who disobeys a government travel ban can be sentenced to up to a year in prison or face a fine of up to 10 million won ($8,290).

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]