In a stark warning to would-be overseas volunteers in the Ukrainian war effort, a British teenager says “the reality is you will be used as cannon-fodder.” Ben Atkin, an 18-year-old from Scotland who signed up as a foreign fighter, described the “disorganized mayhem” in the Ukrainian international legion in an interview with Channel 4 News. He said he felt lucky to be alive after being sent into battle against Putin’s war machine without weapons training mere hours after arriving in Ukraine. “You can’t trust these people to look after you,” Atkin said in the interview. “It’s disorganized mayhem, you are ill-equipped, you’re poorly armed [...] You will be used as cannon-fodder. There are other options out there—fundraise, donate, join an NGO, do whatever you can, but just dying senselessly is not brave, it’s stupid.” The U.K. Foreign Office says it does not know how many of its citizens traveled to Ukraine to fight, though unverified claims included in the Channel 4 broadcast suggested over 20 Britons have already died in the conflict.
