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Tung Nguyen, a Vietnamese-born man who moved to Chernihiv to join his parents when he turned 18, returned to the frontlines to defend his resident country from the Russian invasion despite being injured twice in the line of duty. Tung, who studied in Kyiv and worked as a fitness trainer and bodybuilder, received citizenship after winning the all-Ukraine championship in 2019.
Defending his homeland: “Ukraine gave me a lot – I studied here, worked here, I married a Ukrainian. I can’t even say it’s my second homeland at this point, it’s just my homeland,” Tung, who started as a volunteer delivering food and medicine to Chernihiv before enlisting in the Ukrainian army, told The Guardian. “Before the start of full-scale war, I didn’t know many Vietnamese people, but now they support me a lot. Lots of Vietnamese people wrote me messages of support, people brought food to the hospital,” he added, referencing how the community rallied behind him after he was injured in battle in May 2023 and December 2023.
They were unprepared: Many of the 100,000 Vietnamese people living in Ukraine were reportedly caught off guard when Russia began its invasion in February 2022. A Vietnamese citizen living in Kharkiv, where one of Ukraine’s largest Vietnamese enclaves resides, recalled to Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese Service at the time how Ambassador Nguyen Hong Thach reassured them that a war between Ukraine and Russia would not occur, as the embassy was closely monitoring the situation. “The Vietnamese government’s efforts to protect its citizens here are really slow and ineffective,” the person said.
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