Britons should not head to Ukraine to fight and should instead help however they can from the UK, the head of the armed forces has said.
Speaking to the BBC, Adm Sir Tony Radakin rejected Ukraine’s call for a no-fly zone saying it would not help tactically and might escalate fighting.
He urged the West to have confidence that they were doing the “right thing”.
The invasion was not going well, Russia was becoming less powerful and it cannot continue, he said.
On Britons wanting to join the fight, Adm Radakin said that the “sound of gunfire” was not “something you want to rush to”, and urged people to support Ukraine in sensible ways from the UK.
Asked whether Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had been right to say she would support any Briton who wanted to fight, he said: “We can all understand that sentiment, and that sentiment needs to be channelled into support for Ukraine.”
Senior UK military officers are genuinely worried that some British troops – regulars or reservists – might try to join the battle in Ukraine and, in doing so, risk handing Russia a propaganda victory.
Last week the Chief of Defence People, Lt Gen James Swift, sent out a message to the chain of command stressing that UK military personnel were “not authorised” to travel there.
He said that if there was any suspicion that troops were trying to make their way to Ukraine then it should be reported immediately to the Service Police.
The message warned that if serving British military personnel went to fight in Ukraine then they were putting not only their lives in danger but they also risked giving “the mistaken perception” to Russia that Britain had sent in troops to engage in hostilities.
Adm Sir Tony Radakin has now underlined that message, saying it would be “unlawful and unhelpful”.
At present the MoD does not believe there are any examples of full-time British military personnel going absent to fight in Ukraine. But it’s harder for them to keep tabs on reservists who often also have another career.
