Serving British soldiers who leave their posts to fight in Ukraine will be breaking the law and will be prosecuted, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said.
The warning came after it was reported that four missing British soldiers are feared to have travelled to Eastern Europe to fight the invading Russian forces.
According to The Sun newspaper, a 19-year-old member of the Coldstream Guards wrote a goodbye letter to his parents and bought a ticket to Poland over the weekend with the aim of crossing into Ukraine.
Addressing the issue on Wednesday, Wallace told the House of Commons: “The government position is if you are serving member of the armed forces, you will be breaking the law.”
“There were reports in a weekend newspaper about three members who had gone AWOL over the weekend,” he said. They will be breaking the law and they will be prosecuted when they return for going absent without leave or deserting.”
Wallace also discouraged British civilians from travelling to Ukraine, citing the government’s travel advice.
He said: “The Ukrainians are very clear: you turn up, you are in it for the whole game. You are not in it for a selfie and six weeks, you are in it for real.”
“We have seen already some people at the borders find that may not be the right option to follow,” he said.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has banned all service personnel from travelling to Ukraine until further notice.
An MoD spokesman said: “All service personnel are prohibited from travelling to Ukraine until further notice. This applies whether the service person is on leave or not.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Cabinet minister Grant Shapps warned that British soldiers heading to Ukraine to fight were creating a “dangerous situation.”
The transport secretary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “You cannot go and fight if you’re in the British Army, you cannot just get up and go and fight.”
Asked what Russia might do if a British soldier was captured or killed, Shapps said: “There’s a big difference between Britain sending its army in and some people who are breaking with our law and going to do it. But clearly, this is a dangerous situation.”
UK government ministers have sent mixed signals on British citizens joining the resistance in Ukraine, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss saying on Feb. 27 that she would “absolutely” support volunteers who went to Ukraine to fight.
But the government has since rowed back on the position. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, told the BBC over the weekend that it would be “unlawful as well as unhelpful” for British nationals to join the fight in Ukraine.
