British Man Travels To Ukraine To Fight Russians And Returns Home After 16 Days
A British man who travelled to Ukraine to join the fight against the Russians has returned after 16 days.
A British man who travelled to Ukraine to join the fight against the Russians has returned after 16 days.
Speaking of his experience, 21-year-old Ethan Dennis claims that while in Ukraine, he was held at gunpoint by special forces and helped arrest a Russian spy.
Dennis, who says he served in the Royal Navy, signed up to fight on 2 March.
The former seaman said he initially went to the Ukrainian embassy to find a way to the country, but was unhappy with the amount of red tape.
Instead, he flew by himself to an airport in Poland and crossed into Ukraine with a group of ex-military British people.
After 10 days of fighting, Dennis returned home and spoke about his experience.
He said that after arriving in Ukraine, he and other soldiers were put in the back of a van and taken to Lviv to collect equipment.
"At the safe house we were treated really well with comfy beds and good food," he noted.
However, three days after arriving at the safe house, Dennis and the other soldiers were surrounded by a Ukrainian special forces team.
Dennis said: "The team burst through the door and told us to put our hands on our head whilst they checked our documents and verified our stories."
The Brit thought that this may have been because a civilian informed Ukrainian's about the group's 'foreign uniforms', which had raised suspicions.
Once the officials realised who they were, the group were left alone and from there, Dennis and the group travelled to the capital, Kyiv. It was there that they helped police detain a man who was suspected of being a Russian spy.
He recalled how the group were applauded by people sleeping in a tube station, saying it 'felt nice to be appreciated by these people who right now have so little to be enthusiastic about'.
He said that his experience in Kyiv was 'much more organised' than the one he had earlier experienced, and he soon found out why.
"We were thrown right into the action," Dennis recalled, as he explained experiencing missile strikes, mortar bombs and combat with Russian forces.
He believed that there was 'a lack of motivation to be there' from Russian forces and said that the fighting was 'intense and very scary at points'.
Dennis then explained that his decision to go home was prompted by the objectives he was given.
"It was when the objectives we were being given became too high risk and too little reward that I decided I'd had enough," he said.
As he was on an 'open contract', he was allowed to return home and boarded a refugee train from the capital.
He boarded a flight back to London on 19 March and said that his 'girlfriend was overjoyed' to see him.
Featured Image Credit: SWNSTopics: World News, UK News, Ukraine, Communtiy, Russia
Shola Lee