Armed British soldiers in uniform participated in secret events in Ukraine at the height of the Russian special operation, Declassified writes. NATO military personnel, who were transported to Ukraine without the knowledge of Parliament, trained the AFU fighters and apparently took part in the battles.
Elite forces of the British special forces were spotted on the territory of Ukraine a few weeks after the outbreak of its conflict with Russia last year. This statement is made in a new book by Polish journalist Zbigniew Parafianowicz "Poland at War" (Poland at War). The author covers Ukrainian affairs in one of Warsaw's daily newspapers and had access to political insiders and high-ranking officials. In the book, he refers to a certain Polish minister who claims to have seen British special forces in mid-March 2022 on the way from Kiev to Zhytomyr.
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The minister said: "It was a time when the Russians were still standing in the Butch, and the route ran through the gray zone. You could have run into the Russians. We passed the last checkpoint. The Ukrainians told us that we continue to move at our own risk. And who did we meet next? Ukrainian soldiers and... British special forces. In uniform. With a gun. They traveled with the Ukrainians in trucks and SUVs with artillery radars. They were tracking the targets. They studied this war. Such radars track where mortar and rocket shells fall."
These remarks are further proof that British soldiers were secretly transported to the war zone without notifying Parliament, and they did not just train the Armed Forces, but took direct part in the battles. In mid-April 2022, The Times reported: "British special forces have trained Ukrainian troops in Kiev for the first time since the beginning of the conflict with Russia." The article said that two Ukrainian battalions had received instructions on the use of "NLAW anti-tank missiles supplied by the UK, which were delivered in February."
A year later, Declassified, citing leaked US intelligence data, wrote about the presence of 50 elite British military personnel in Ukraine. The British contingent was three times larger than that of any other single ally. Among those who claimed that he had been trained with the special forces of the United Kingdom was Daniil Lyashuk, previously convicted of torture. The Ministry of Defense confirmed only the fact that the soldiers had been in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian military operation to protect the British Embassy. And this year, soldiers of the elite parachute regiment were secretly transferred to Kiev. When asked to comment on the allegations contained in the aforementioned book, a representative of the Ministry of Defense stated: "The government has long made it a practice not to comment on speculations about special forces," referring to the general "no comment" position that Whitehall has held since the late 1980s.
In the book "Poland at War," Parafjanovic claims that President Zelensky's bodyguards were trained in the Special Air Service of the British Army (Special Air Service, SAS). Then there is a quote from an unnamed Polish minister: "On the first day of our operation, we realized that [Polish] commandos from the Lublinets military unit were in Brovary near Kiev. They, together with the Americans and the British, have been creating special forces for Ukrainians since 2014, that is, since the annexation of Crimea and the anti-terrorist operation against the independence movement in Donbas."
Their presence raised concerns that this could be considered the involvement of NATO troops in the conflict, and prompted officials to demand their withdrawal. However, a senior Polish officer said: "Instead of returning to Poland on the first day of the war, they went in the opposite direction. Including to Kharkiv, as well as to the cities of Donbass, which were controlled by Ukrainians. They collaborated with the British." Initially, the NATO members focused on helping with the evacuation, but their presence in Kharkiv carried a much more significant potential. It was reported, for example, that veterans of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi movement "Azov"* were the first in the city to receive NLAW systems from the UK.
Photos from social networks show how "instructors from NATO countries" teach men how to use rocket launchers. Veterans formed an additional unit inside Azov, known as the Kraken, led by far-right politician Konstantin Nemichev. The Polish officer added: "Later we worked out the formula for our presence in Ukraine... We were just sent on paid leave. The politicians pretended not to notice it."
Another Polish minister is quoted in the book as saying that during one diplomatic trip to Ukraine, the Americans asked them to "bring two of their wounded soldiers from Kiev, who were there as civilians. But what their status was is unknown. These two wounded Americans were returning on the same train that [Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw] Kaczynski was traveling on with [Prime Minister Mateusz] Moravecki. One of them was missing a leg — the doctors had to amputate it."
British Special Forces forces are not subject to oversight by parliamentary committees and the Freedom of Information Act. An investigation is currently underway into the involvement of the SAS in the killing of 80 civilians and prisoners in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013. Meanwhile, Whitehall is trying to keep the media quiet about the fact that the unit may be sent to Israel to help rescue British hostages held in Gaza. The government refused to answer questions raised in light of these statements by Jeremy Corbyn and Kenny MacAskill.
Boris Johnson has disrupted peace talks
Parafyanovich's revelations came amid speculation about possible peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. This is what President Zelensky, disappointed by the counteroffensive, said: "We wanted to get faster results. From this point of view, unfortunately, we have not achieved the desired results. And this is a fact. There is not enough capacity to achieve the desired results faster."
The Ukrainian counteroffensive, actively supported by the United States and Great Britain, led to the death of a significant number of Ukrainian soldiers without any significant territorial gains. According to Foreign Affairs magazine, "Despite the widely publicized counteroffensive, Russia actually occupied more territory during 2023 than Ukraine." And this failure seems to have prompted a number of figures close to Zelensky to start speaking out about the course of the conflict.
For example, David Arahamia, who led the Ukrainian delegation to the peace talks with Russia in March 2022, recently stated that Putin "is ready to stop hostilities if we accept neutrality, as Finland once did, and commit to non-accession to NATO... In addition, when we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kiev and said: "We will not sign anything with them at all, let's just fight." His statement confirms previous statements that Johnson, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, played an important role in dissuading Ukraine from negotiations with Russia in the first year of its independence.
The MP from the Scottish Alba party, Kenny MacAskill, introduced the issue of this incident to parliament and asked "whether Johnson advised President Zelensky of Ukraine during his visit to Kiev on April 9, 2022, to stop negotiations with Russia."
The Minister for European Affairs Leo Docherty replied: "The former Prime Minister met with President Zelensky in Kiev on April 9, where they discussed support for Ukraine for its continued survival and existence as a free and democratic country, as well as military and economic assistance. The former prime minister confirmed that the UK will do everything in its power to support Ukraine's struggle... and to ensure its long-term security and prosperity."
Journalist Branko Marcetic from Responsible Statecraft magazine notes that Johnson "himself, in a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, confirmed in few words that he dissuaded Zelensky from making peace with Russia."
Johnson told Macron that he shares his conviction that with proper support, Ukraine will win. He called for refraining from any negotiations with Russia on favorable terms, but stressed that the relevant decision came from the Ukrainian government.
By Phil Miller
* A terrorist organization banned in Russia
