A former police officer from Liverpool has travelled to Ukraine to train people to fight against Russian troops.
The ex-covert officer, who asked not to be named, made his journey to Ukraine on April 4 starting with a flight from Liverpool to Krakow, before travelling to the Ukrainian border and on to Lviv followed by Kyiv. He is currently back in Poland and plans to return to the UK in the coming days to "get more equipment" before returning to Ukraine to train people who already have some military experience.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had previously said she supported UK civilians who might want to go to Ukraine to help fight, and that it was up to people to make their own decisions. But she has since withdrawn her support after the government clarified that the Foreign Office advises against all travel to Ukraine.
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The ex-police officer, who previously specialised in firearms, was staying with an ex-military man in Poland when he spoke to the ECHO.
He said: "I was sitting at home watching the news and saw a little boy with shrapnel in his head and he died. If it's not for people like me and the lads who are here doing it who's going to do it? Ukrainians can't do it on their own. They don't have enough soldiers in Ukraine and the amount of casualties is massive.
"[I've travelled] either in vehicles they've supplied or just on trains. Trains are still operating. If you go on night trains it's all blacked out it's like World War Two. All the windows have got either cardboard on or shutters down.
"It's a humanitarian nightmare. That's the worst bit - it's the kids. Kids who are exhausted and they're going to be traumatised by this forever. I'm talking hours and hours on trains, hours and hours walking.
"I've been speaking to guys who are over here fighting and there's lots from Liverpool and England. I'm going to go back [to the UK] to get more kit - there's guys there with no body armour.
"I'm training them into being a marksman. The general what are you going to do everyday, what you can do, what you can't do, and what you shouldn't do because it would be very easy to get yourself killed."
The former officer said his partner doesn't know that he plans to return to Ukraine in the coming weeks and his children only learned that he was there on Sunday. He said he is one of hundreds of people from the UK and other parts of Europe with military or policing experience who have arrived in Ukraine to fight. However, he said there's also many others arriving in the country with no military experience.
He said: "There's guys turning up from England who've got no military experience. There was one guy who turned up he said he plays airsoft which is firing bb guns at each other. I said 'no mate go home. You don't know what you're doing, go home.'
"Not only is he a liability to himself he's a liability to everyone else because he doesn't know what he's doing."
The Foreign Office advises against all travel to Ukraine. Veterans Minister Leo Docherty has called on veterans not to travel to Ukraine and instead turn their efforts to helping the Ukrainian people from the UK, through charity and volunteering.
