Dozens of fake soldiers have been deported from Ukraine after being exposed as fantasists with no military experience.
British volunteers who boasted of heroic military careers are among those booted out of the country.
Some even appealed for donations on Go Fund Me pages, claiming they needed the cash to keep fighting the Russians even after they had returned to the UK.
Others used fake pictures of themselves holding airsoft pellet rifles and claiming they were taken in Ukraine.
The problem was revealed when veterans’ group The Walter Mitty Hunters Club was contacted by genuine British ex-soldiers fighting in the country about the extent of the blight.
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The term “Walter Mitty” comes from an American short story about Walter Mitty – a dull man who has vivid daydreams that he is a war hero.
The group was told about a volunteer who claimed he served in the Paras but was actually thrown out of recruit training for refusing to obey orders.
He was ordered to leave the country by the Ukrainian authorities when he panicked and risked the lives of other volunteers while on patrol.
The Walter Mitty Hunters Club wrote on its website: “Sent packing by the Ukraine armed forces after he started to panic a tad too much after he made claims of being a veteran with loads of combat experience.
“The truth was evident in the little knowledge he had in basic soldiering skills.”
Another man also claimed to have served for 22 years in the British Army, including as an SAS officer.
The fraudster said he had served in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Falklands and the Middle East – as well as completing spying missions in Russia and China.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army retreated from frontline city Sievierodonetsk yesterday. But some troops were still holed up in the huge Azot chemical factory at the edge of the city with 500 civilians.
G7 leaders from the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan were due to meet in the Bavarian Alps today to discuss the Ukraine war.
The coalition backing Kyiv has shown signs of fracturing amid arguments the country should cede land to Russia to speed up a peace pact. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last night: “The UK will back Ukraine because we know their security is our security, their freedom is our freedom.”
