U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss Voices Support for People in Britain Who Want to Fight in Ukraine

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she supports people in Britain who want to go fight in Ukraine (flickr.com)

U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss expressed her support for people in the United Kingdom who want to travel to Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion, speaking in a February 27 interview on BBC One’s Sunday Morning program. Her comments sparked criticism from colleagues within her own Conservative Party, who said such action would be illegal and escalate tensions with Moscow.

“The people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy, not just for Ukraine but also for the whole of Europe because that is what President [Vladimir] Putin is challenging. And absolutely, if people want to support that struggle, I would support them in doing that,” Truss said on the program. When asked to clarify her support for Britons going to fight in Ukraine, Truss said, “Absolutely, if that is what they want to do.” 

Britain, like other NATO members, has already said that it will not send troops to fight in Ukraine, but Truss reiterated Britain’s continued support for Ukraine through the shipment of arms to the country.

Truss’s comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a statement encouraging foreigners to fight in Ukraine earlier on February 27. “Anyone who wants to join the defense of Ukraine, Europe, and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals,” he said in the statement.

“Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries. Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba added in a tweet. 

Numerous people have gone to the Ukrainian embassy in London wanting to join the fight. “You wouldn’t believe it. It’s not just Ukrainians. Everybody, from all the nations just asking how we can get in,” said Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain,.

However, Britain’s Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 prevents British citizens from joining a foreign army in a war against a country that Britain is at peace with, raising questions about legality of British citizens joining the fight in Ukraine.

“The comments of the foreign secretary [Truss] may be entirely honourable and understandable, but unless the U.K.government gives formal licence to people to go to Ukraine, they would be in breach of the Foreign Enlistment Act and committing a criminal offense,” Dominic Grieve, the Conservative Attorney General under former Prime Minister David Cameron, said.

Britons who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War during the 1930s risked prosecution under the Foreign Enlistment Act, although the act was never invoked because the fighting was against facism. More recently, British nationals have also volunteered for foreign military forces, including the French Foreign Legion or the Israel Defense Forces, without consequences. Some British citizens who fought for the Islamic State have since had their citizenship revoked in order to prevent their return to the United Kingdom.