More than 20 British volunteers have been killed in battles across Ukraine, it has been claimed.
Brit fighters made the claim as they said they were used as “cannon fodder” and described the war as “disorganised mayhem.”
A Channel 4 TV investigation has revealed British volunteers fighting have suffered a shambolic lack of organisation, training, and equipment.
Investigations Editor Cathy Newman spoke to Ben Atkin, 18, from Scotland, the youngest known Briton to fight in Ukraine.
He revealed: “You can't trust these people to look after you whilst you're in this area. It's disorganised mayhem, you’re ill-equipped, you’re going out, you’re very poorly armed.
“As long as you understand reality, that you will be used as cannon fodder, then if you're at peace with that, and you think that you can help, I'm not going to stop anybody.
“I can say there are other options out there, fundraise, donate, join an NGO, do whatever you can, but just dying senselessly, it’s not brave, it’s stupid.”
Ben volunteered in March with no combat experience and flew to Krakow in Poland before making his way to the border to join the ‘International Legion’ of foreign volunteers.
He was told his three-month tour of duty would now be three years and that within 24 hours he would be posted to Donetsk, scene of the worst fighting.
Ben added: “We were given a representation of the Legion and then we were shown the actual Legion. They contrast each other quite starkly.”
Hours before being shipped to a military base in Yavoriv, just outside Lviv, Ben decided not to fight and left to work with an NGO supplying food and supplies in the country.
“The next day the base was hit by 30 Russian cruise missiles, killing dozens of foreign volunteers.”
Former Royal Navy engineer, Curtis, from Cornwall, also joined other foreign fighters and told Newman:
“There was absolutely no structure to it at all. Nothing at all.
“There was a Ukrainian officer who was in charge of the whole entity and left to our devices essentially for the first few days, and it was chaos, absolute chaos,” he said.
“Most of the ex-serving, whether it’s Navy, Army, Marines, even the Air Force, some guys were there - they were within a decent age, 30 and above, but there were a lot of young guys who had never been in any serving military, had no military training at all, kind of Call of Duty type people.”
Curtis, 30, passed through the same military base in Yavoriv but left just ten hours before the fatal missile strike.
He then fought in Irpin and recalls: “There were plenty of guys that we were with without helmets, without enough magazines sometimes to fight with effectively.
“We were using essentially supermarket radios, which are not at all decent for fighting with, Russians can listen to everything we were saying, and it was highlighted many times.”
Asked how many British fighters have died, Curtis replied: “I think it’s probably in the high hundreds went out there originally.
“A lot of guys left after the initial Lviv attack and realised it’s not a game. I would say 20 plus British have died.”
