Yesterday — the Invader’s Tool. Today — in the Hands of Defenders.

Fighters of the 1st International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine recently displayed the modern weaponry they use to take out Russians. Among the collection were captured arms — weapons that, until recently, were used by Russian troops to invade Ukraine. The event offered more than a technical showcase; it created space for reflection. A weapon, after all, is only as moral — or immoral — as the person who pulls the trigger.

At first glance, it looked like just another outdoor event in Lviv: white tents, neat tables. But instead of street food, artisan coffee, or tourist merchandise, the tables held real weapons — tools of war, marked not by stories written down but by experiences lived.

What stood before the audience was a living museum of the Russo-Ukrainian War. There was the legendary “Humvee” — an HMMWV armored vehicle that had carried many combat groups out of the jaws of death. Lined up like silent witnesses were powerful machine guns: DShK-M, Browning M2, M240B, MG 42/59, PKM — all veterans of battles across Donetsk, Kharkiv, and even Belgorod regions. The MK19 automatic grenade launcher, a fearsome “stopper” of Russian meat-grinder assaults. And an entire arsenal of handheld weapons — from compact pistols to sniper rifles with deadly long-range precision.

But the true center of gravity was the trophy weapons — firearms once wielded by the enemy. These made people pause. Made them ask questions. Among them: an AK-12 rifle, DP-27 and KORD machine guns. These weren’t museum artifacts behind glass. They were fully operational — weapons that had only recently been turned against us. Their presence said more than words ever could: we are not just defending — we are halting the enemy, reclaiming ground, and winning.

Fifteen minutes at the exhibition was enough to understand: this wasn’t a display about gear. It was a portrait of the people who grip these rifles and storm trenches, who clear bunkers and risk everything. Every sentence they spoke came from the front — from places where life narrows to the span of a heartbeat. Among them stood the battalion commander himself, sharing hard-won lessons — no bravado, just the quiet strength of someone who shoulders responsibility for others every single day.

That day, the weapons became a backdrop for something deeply human. When you see a machine gun that was in enemy hands yesterday, now standing on our side — you understand: weapons have no morality. They do not turn someone into a hero or a criminal. They are only tools — and what matters is the hand that wields them. In the hands of a scoundrel, a weapon is a means of murder. But in the hands of a defender, it becomes the final line of safety. An extension of will — to survive, to protect, to endure.

This exhibition offered no easy answers. And that may be its greatest strength. Not grand declarations, but quiet conviction: if we want fewer people doing evil in this world, someone must be ready to take up a rifle. That is the calling of the free world's fighters in the 1st International Legion — to wield weapons not as instruments of terror, but as instruments of justice. Because only then can freedom be truly defended.

Text: Dmytro Tolkachov
Photo, video: Valeriia Nazimova