They wanted us for cannon fodder, say British medical volunteers ‘tricked’ into fighting for Ukraine

British medical volunteers have claimed the Ukrainian army duped them into crossing the border before trying to conscript them as “cannon fodder” for the battle of Kyiv.

Carl Walsh and Ollie Funnell left the UK with the hope of putting their expertise to use treating casualties in the warzone, but were instead told they would be deployed to defend Ukraine’s besieged capital.

Mr Walsh, 50, is a former combat medical technician from the Rhondda Valley in Wales and had met Mr Funnell, a paramedic turned teacher from Eastbourne, East Sussex, heading in the same direction at Krakow airport on March 11.

Speaking on Wednesday on the Polish side of the border with Ukraine, the new friends told The Telegraph they could hardly believe their ordeal had only lasted five days.

Both men contacted the Ukrainian embassy in the UK to offer their help after seeing the appeal by Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, for volunteers to join his country’s resistance against the Russian invaders, dubbed the international legion.

Throughout all their subsequent discussions with Ukrainian officials, the men claimed, assurances were given that there would be no expectation for them to fight, only to act as medics.

This all changed when they crossed the border on Saturday and found themselves being shuttled to the International Centre for Peacekeeping & Security - a military base used by Western volunteers - near the city of Lviv.

Mr Walsh, who served on military tours in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq during a 17-year career, said: “To join the international legion, the Ukrainians wanted to take our passports off us, sign a year contract, give us training for two days - 48 hours - and then within another 48 hours we would be fighting in Kyiv.”

By this point, Mr Walsh and Mr Funnell were travelling with a bigger group of volunteers, including several ex-military officers and a significant number of men with no combat experience.

‘It's a death wish’

Mr Walsh, who left his job as a taxi driver to travel to Ukraine, continued: “These boys, some of them had no military experience, they were being told they would have 48 hours of training and then they are straight on the front line. It’s a death wish.

“It wasn’t on any of the emails we received, that we would have to sign up for a year and they would take your passport off you. These people who have gone out and been killed will still have family thinking they’re safe over here, because we didn’t fill out any next of kin forms.

“They didn’t even have weapons in camp to train with.”

Mr Funnell was one of the men without a military background, having worked as a paramedic until 2014, when he became a teacher in Eastbourne. He had left with the blessing of his employers at the Ratton School and even set up a fundraising page to help pay for what he assumed would be a humanitarian trip.

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The teacher said: “Kyiv is surrounded at the moment, they were sending us there as cannon fodder.”

Fortunately for the two British volunteers, one of their companions - formerly a senior officer in the French Foreign Legion - intervened and told the group: “Ninety-five per cent of you will be killed within days of arriving in Kyiv, we’re getting back on the bus.”

Just hours after the men had made it back across the Polish border, the base where they were supposed to have been undergoing training was hit by 30 cruise missiles fired by Russia, killing 35 people.

Warning to British volunteers

Richard Quellyn-Roberts, a former Army captain whose firm, Mitmark, is providing humanitarian and logistics support on the Polish-Ukrainian border, said he had been deeply troubled by the number of British volunteers heading into Ukraine.

He told The Telegraph: “I would urge British veterans and non-veterans, if they are thinking of going over to Ukraine, to firstly really consider it - because you will compromise yourselves, the Ukrainians and the British Government.

“If you get captured by the Russians, that is a significant propaganda victory for the Kremlin.

“If you do go, please make sure you turn off all your electronic devices before crossing the border - or, more simply, just don’t go at all.”

Mr Funnell made a similar plea to British volunteers considering making their own journey.

He said: “Don’t do it, you will just end up being conscripted, they will put you on the frontline knowing you don’t have any military experience - it is a suicide mission.”

Their intervention came as the head of a Ukrainian city that is facing a Russian attack said on Wednesday that volunteer medics from the UK have arrived to help train local health care workers.

Vitaly Kim, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, in a video statement welcomed foreign medics who have arrived in the strategic city on the Black Sea coast that has been under attack by the Russian army since the start of the invasion, pushing into southern Ukraine from the Russia-occupied Crimea.

Capturing the city known for its ship-building would open a road for Russia onto the Black Sea port of Odesa and all the way to Ukraine’s south-western border with Moldova.

Mr Kim on Wednesday hailed the arrival of an unspecified number of volunteer medics from abroad.

“They had been training medics in Lviv and Kyiv. Now they will be working here to improve the skills of medical staff working on the front line,” he said.

The charismatic Mykolaiv governor, whose cheerful and calm updates on social media have rivalled those of president Zelensky, on Wednesday did not give any numbers but called the medics “serious and very nice guys”.

He called them “volunteers and tourists who came here to help out”.