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British soldier arrested after unauthorized trip to join Ukraine's foreign legion

Monday, March 21st 2022 - 09:50 UTC
Full article 10 comments
Authorities fear that if British soldiers are taken prisoner, Russia could claim the UK is intervening directly in the conflict. Authorities fear that if British soldiers are taken prisoner, Russia could claim the UK is intervening directly in the conflict.

An elite British serviceman has been arrested after returning from Ukraine, where he allegedly went to join the so-called International Legion of Territorial Defense, which brings together foreign fighters wishing to engage Russian troops, it was reported.

The 19-year-old member of the Coldstream Guard had gone AWOL (absent without leave) some two weeks ago after getting “bored” with the ceremonial role of his regiment. According to The Sun, he wanted to see some real action, which he had failed to do while in Afghanistan.

The soldier was persuaded to return to Britain to avoid further consequences. But three other servicemen who went along with him are said to have stayed in Ukraine.

“The Guardsman seems to have seen the error of his ways while he was in Ukraine and everyone is hugely relieved about that,” The Sun printed.

“He was in touch with his chain of command, who told him that he had to return. He knew he would be in trouble but was also told in no uncertain terms that it would be worse the longer he stayed out there,” the newspaper's source added. The Guardsman could face a jail term for desertion.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Defence explicitly warned active-duty soldiers against going to fight in Ukraine on their own, regardless of whether they were on leave or not, or ”face disciplinary and administrative consequences.”

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin recently warned it is “unlawful” for serving troops to go and fight in another country's army. The Sun also claimed the chiefs of staff are worried that if British soldiers are taken prisoner, Russia could claim the UK is intervening directly in the conflict.

Categories: Politics, International.

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  • Pugol-H

    Liberato
    I told you, I have spent time amongst Russians, they are not evil, very likable people actually.

    Putin however is evil and yet you defend him to the hilt?

    At no time in Iraqi, Afghanistan or anywhere else did coalition forces deliberately destroy a city with the population kept trapped in it.

    Once again you seem to have no answers to the points put to you so you divert to Afghanistan, Iraqi but no mention of Chagos this time, must have slipped your mind.

    Syria??? No not us, that’s Assad, Putin and the Iranians.

    TiTMonde
    ‘done what was necessary for Russia to not invade’.

    Man you really are out of it, aren’t you.

    No one in Europe is going to agree to Putin re-occupying Eastern Europe and restoring the Iron Curtain.

    Europe and indeed the world (well, most of it anyway) has moved on since then, a long way.

    ‘negotiating with the Junta in 1982’, what are you talking about???

    Never happened, the British did not and had no intention of, ‘negotiating’ with Argentina.

    Argentina either withdrew from the Islands, immediately and unconditionally, or it was a shooting war and that was made quite plain, no one could have had any doubts.

    Mar 23rd, 2022 - 04:25 pm +2
  • Pugol-H

    TiTMonde
    Well, according to Margret Thatcher ‘the English-speaking world had been responsible for most of the successes this century’, and ‘In my lifetime all the problems have come from mainland Europe, and all the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations across the world,’

    Can’t argue with that, Huzzah!!!

    Liberato
    Referenda have to be free and fair to have any meaning, in Crimea only the Russians voted, although not that it would have made much difference admittedly.

    Ukrainians and Crimean Tartars can tell you all about being oppressed/dispossessed by Russia in Crimea, that’s much of their history.

    Remember that most of the Russian population in Crimea is relatively recently arrived, one might almost say ‘implanted by a colonial power’.

    ‘14000 people were bombed in Dombass’, ‘continual nazification of Ukraine’, elimination of the russian language from Ukraine’.

    All Putin’s propaganda, a tissue of lies.

    You probably haven’t noticed, but when you see news reports from Kiev people are usually (but not always by any means) speaking Ukrainian. People in the reports from anywhere in the east are almost always speaking Russian.

    It is the Russian speaking Ukrainians, both ethnic Ukrainian and Russian, that are being killed whilst fiercely resisting being ‘liberated’ by the Russian Army.

    ‘Russia have what it takes’, really??? To do what??? Massacre unarmed and defenceless civilians, we know that, saw it in Chechnya and Syria.

    Not going so well for them on the military front though, is it???

    So next stop chemical weapons, just like in Syria.

    I suppose you’ll defend that too.

    Mar 22nd, 2022 - 04:31 pm +1
  • bushpilot

    Your use of recreational drugs on a daily basis has damaged your mind.

    You turn rats into victims. Due to your bigotry it seems.

    Mar 21st, 2022 - 04:38 pm 0
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