A cabinet minister was forced to issue a warning to British soldiers this morning amid reports that four squaddies have gone AWOL to fight in Ukraine.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said service personnel breaking the law and heading to Ukraine to fight were creating a “dangerous situation”.
It comes amid reports that four British soldiers - including a teenager paid to protect the Queen - are feared to have gone AWOL to fight Russian troops.
According to The Sun, a 19-year-old British soldier quit his barracks, left a note for his parents and booked a one-way ticket to Eastern Europe.
Defence chiefs are now racing to intercept him in case Russia catches him and tries to claim that Britain has entered the war.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has previously warned foreign countries not to interfere in his invasion, saying it could lead to “consequences they have never seen”.
Shapps told ITV’s Good Morning Britain it was “inappropriate” and added: “You cannot go and fight if you’re in the British Army, you cannot just get up and go and fight.
“Of course that’s inappropriate behaviour and you would expect the army to have some very, very strict rules in place, as they do.”
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. And clearly, we want to make sure that the assistance we’re providing is done in an official way – like the anti-tank missiles that we provided prior to and during this conflict, and like the 22,000 Ukrainians that we’ve trained.”
Tory MP and chair of the defence select committee Tobias Ellwood told Times Radio: “It’s actually, I think, against the law to go and do this.”
He said he would discourage people from trying to support in that way - even though it is a “noble” cause, adding: “It could actually complicate matters.”
The MoD has warned that service personnel are banned from travelling to Ukraine.
A spokesperson said: “All service personnel are prohibited from travelling to Ukraine until further notice.
“This applies whether the service person is on leave or not. Personnel travelling to Ukraine will face disciplinary and administrative consequences.”
It comes after the foreign secretary Liz Truss suggested the government would back civilian Brits who want to go and fight in Ukraine against Russian troops.
Asked whether she would back people from Britain going over to Ukraine to help them fight, she replied: “Absolutely, if that’s what they wanted to do.”