Minister Urges British Nationals Against Travelling To Fight In Ukraine After UK Citizen Dies
3 min read
British nationals should not travel to Ukraine to fight, but there are many other ways to aid the war effort, Anne-Marie Trevelyan has said.
Trevelyan’s comments follow confirmation that one British national has died fighting in the war in Eastern Europe, and another is missing.
Scott Sibley, a 36-year-old British army veteran, is believed to be the first UK citizen to have died fighting in Ukraine.
Speaking on Sky News this morning, the international trade secretary listed opening homes to refugees and utilising financial channels as more appropriate ways for the UK to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“As we’ve set out from the beginning, we don’t want British nationals to go and fight,” Trevelyan said.
“We want to make sure that people can show their support and solidarity for Ukrainians and for the battle that those extraordinary people are doing for their country through all those other ways,” she added.
“It is extraordinary how generous the British people are being, both with their own homes, with their own money and with their time to support the Ukrainian families.”
Shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she would support British veterans supporting the army in Ukraine, leading to a number of people signing up to fight. The Ministry of Defence later discouraged the move.
Family members of the missing British national have been informed of the situation and are currently being supported by the foreign, commonwealth and development office.
A spokesperson for FCDO said: "We can confirm that a British national has been killed in Ukraine and are supporting their family."
Yesterday in Ukraine rockets rained down on Kyiv as the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the capital city.
Guterres admitted to feeling “disappointment, frustration and anger” that the UN security council had failed to prevent the outbreak of war.
"I am here to say to you Mr President, and to the people of Ukraine, we will not give up," he said.
On Thursday Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told media Guterres was given the opportunity to witness first-hand “all the war crimes” Putin’s army has committed.
Zelensky continued to describe the Russian government as guilty of carrying out a genocide in his country.
Guterres has pleaded with Putin to allow thousands of Ukrainians stranded in the Russian occupied southern city of Mariupol to be saved.
The city has experienced weeks of intense bombardment and has effectively been destroyed in its entirety.
"Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis," the secretary general said.
"Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance, many are elderly and in need of medical care, or have limited mobility,” he added.
“They need an escape route out of the apocalypse."
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