Brits given permission to travel to Ukraine and fight against Vladimir Putin
BRITS were last night given permission to take up arms against Vladimir Putin in Ukraine as the world rallied to support the besieged nation.
Volunteers wanting to join the fight were told by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss: “If people want to support that struggle I would support them in doing that.”
She gave her backing to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has called on people from around the globe to join his newly formed International Legion to see off Russia’s forces.
His foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said: “Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.”
Backing those who wanted to answer the call to arms, Ms Truss said: “That is something people can make their own decisions about.
“The people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy, not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe.
“Absolutely, if people want to support that struggle I would support them in doing that.”
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Yesterday Kyiv’s ambassador to London Vadym Prystaiko said many volunteers had signed up for combat.
He said: “We have an overwhelming number of people coming, just bombarding us, demanding to allow them to join up.
“You wouldn’t believe it — it’s not just Ukrainians, it’s from all nations just asking how can we get in?”
Foreign Office sources said they would prefer Britons not to travel — but would not stop them from heading for the battlefield “to fight for freedom and democracy”.
Whitehall insiders said they did not expect those who travelled abroad to fight to face prosecution on their return — unlike those who travelled to Syria during their civil war.
The call echoed the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, when about 4,000 Britons travelled to fight fascism — including Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four author George Orwell.
But the Ukrainian embassy in London's website is currently down - meaning Brits can't use it to sign up to join the foreign legion.
A message pops up to anyone trying to log onto the site saying it "can't be reached".
Elsewhere, Britons across the nation showed solidarity with Ukraine by attending demos, church services and making donations.
Ukrainian former Chelsea star Andriy Shevchenko joined protesters at Trafalgar Square in central London after denouncing Putin for invading his homeland.
In Nottingham, members of the congregation wiped tears from their eyes as the Ukrainian national anthem was sung at the end of a Ukrainian Catholic Church service.
Hundreds of thousands also took to the streets of Berlin, Brussels and other western capitals to voice anger at Putin’s warmongering.
'ILL-GOTTEN GAINS'
It came as PM Boris Johnson launched a new blitz to hunt out hidden Kremlin cash stashed away in London.
The Economic Crime Bill will be rushed through Parliament to stop Putin’s dirty money being hidden and laundered through his backers’ London mansions.
Mr Johnson said: “We are going faster and harder to tear back the façade that those supporting Putin’s campaign of destruction have been hiding behind for so long.
“Those backing Putin have been put on notice — there will be nowhere to hide your ill-gotten gains.”
Ms Truss also said she was preparing a hit list of Russian oligarchs to be targeted by sanctions in the coming weeks.
She said: “We will be targeting oligarchs’ private jets, we will be targeting their properties, we will be targeting other possessions that they have and there will be nowhere to hide.”
It came after EU chiefs stopped bickering and finally slapped tough sanctions on the Kremlin — chucking Moscow’s banks off the Swift international payments system, banning Russian planes from their airspace and cancelling Putin’s propaganda channels.
The EU also slapped new sanctions on Russia’s central bank — freezing £225billion of its Euros held in European banks.
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Oil giant BP ditched its £10.4billion 20 per cent stake in Kremlin defence company Rosneft after coming under pressure from ministers.
Chief executive Bernard Looney also resigned from the board with “immediate effect.”
