Russia has warned British “mercenaries” that they face death if they remain in Ukraine fighting Vladimir Putin’s troops.
The warning was made in a chilling video on social media, as Moscow announced it was launching a formal probe into the alleged role of Britain's SAS on the ground in Lviv.
The Investigative Committee [IC] - seen as similar to the FBI in charge of major criminal cases - will examine claims that British “sabotage” experts are on the ground.
The claims come following the capture of Britons Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28, by Moscow’s forces after they were caught siding with Kyiv in Donbas.
But a new video posted on "patriotic" Russian social media channels warns comrades of the two Brits, their fate will be “in the hands of the winners”.
“War is not a TV series or a computer game - everything is real here.”
“Go home before it’s too late” the clip urges.
It highlighted foreign “mercenaries” who faced death as soldiers of fortune.
Calling Pinner and Aslin “mercenaries” - who Russian refuses to recognise under the Geneva Conventions - it claimed Britain is trying to spin a false PR story that the pair were “almost Ukrainians” serving as defenders.
“But it’s not like that,” said the video which also claimed the SAS was training Ukrainian forces in Kyiv.
Today (April 23) the IC announced its probe into alleged reports of British SAS troops in Ukraine, attempting to sabotage the invasion.
“The Investigative Committee of Russia will investigate the facts of the activities of British SAS saboteurs in Ukrainian regions,” reported state-controlled news outlet RIA Novosti.
The IC claimed that “at least two groups of specialists in sabotage and guerrilla warfare from the British Special Air Service (SAS) have been sent to the Lviv region”.
An IC source claimed SAS operatives in Ukraine “are specialists in sabotage and partisan activities, recruiting and training agents to work in hostile territory”.
Russia appears to base its investigation on information allegedly received from captured Ukrainian troops.
The SAS is “considered one of the most highly qualified in the world in organising coups d'etat, mass protest rallies, contract killings of political figures, recruiting agents, including those in the highest echelons of power, and preparing terrorist attacks”, said the RIA Novosti report.
”This is no ordinary special force - these are intellectuals, in each group there is always an ideologist, you can say a professor, and the rest are particular specialists,” said a Russian law enforcement source.
The report claimed that the SAS often work in war zones under cover of medical workers.
“With a high degree of probability, these specialists arrived in order to improve the skills and efficiency of the Ukrainian special services in coordinating the activities of sabotage groups in the territories of Ukraine controlled by Russian troops,” said the IC source.
The committee is headed by Russia’s top criminal investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, who was a university classmate of Vladimir Putin ’s.
The Times reported from Ukraine on April 16 that SAS troops have trained local forces in Kyiv for the first time since the war began.
