Kourosh Sehati was working for the British television station Iran International when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Today, Sehati is fighting on the front lines in Ukraine, an Eastern European country he calls his "second home."
Sehati is the first Iranian to join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, a military unit of the armed forces made up of foreign volunteers.
In an interview with Radio Farda, Sehati said he was defending Ukraine from what he called "a club of dictators and conquerors."
This, he said, applied to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his key allies, including Iranian rulers, Belarus' authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, as well as North Korea and China.
The 46-year-old journalist's decision to fight in Ukraine was also deeply personal.
"I have a connection to Ukraine because my wife is Ukrainian and our children are partly Ukrainian," he told Radio Farda, adding that his family lives in London.
Sehati announced his decision to fight in Ukraine on March 18, writing on X that he had joined the army to "fight against the criminal Putin and his supporters."
Russia is 'harming' Iran
In addition to personal ties to Ukraine, Sehati opposes Moscow based on historical grievances that Iran has towards Russia.
"Russia has caused great harm to Iran over the past 200 years," said Sehati, who worked for the Persian service of the Voice of America and holds American citizenship.
Persia and Imperial Russia fought a series of wars in the 19th century, culminating in Tehran ceding much of the Caucasus to Moscow.
The Russian Empire also fought for control of Iran's natural resources and occupied Iranian territory.
In the mid-1940s, the Soviet Union supported short-lived ethnic Kurdish and Azerbaijani republics in northwestern Iran. Although the republics were quickly dismantled, they contributed to ethnic tensions that persist to this day.
Not all Iranians support the Islamic Republic.
Since the beginning of Russia's war in Ukraine, Iran has supplied Moscow with drones that have been used to attack Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Although Tehran and Moscow deny this, there is significant evidence to suggest otherwise. There are also growing concerns that Iran could provide missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Sehati said one of his motivations for joining was to challenge perceptions about Iranians.
"I'm trying to send a message of solidarity between Iranians and Ukrainians, so that Ukrainians don't associate Iranians with the actions of the Islamic Republic," he said.
A human rights activist who has been arrested several times, Sehati fled Iran to Turkey in 2004.
He was granted political refugee status and later moved to the United States.
It's not murder, it's self-defense.
Sehati was ten years old when the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988. He has no previous combat experience other than two years of compulsory military service he served in Iran.
Since joining the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, he and his unit have been undergoing professional training.
He admitted that he had never killed anyone in combat, but that he was mentally prepared.
"It's like when someone breaks into your home with a gun and tries to attack you. What are you going to do?" Sehati said. "Defending yourself is legitimate self-defense, not murder."
Bonus video:
