Meet the British soldiers fighting in Ukraine

At his base near the frontlines outside of Kherson, an ex-British soldier named JK shows me a video of what looks like a scene from the world war one film 1917. It shows him and two other volunteer fighters walking through a burning, smoking treeline, having spent two hours pinned down by artillery and sniper fire that killed three Ukrainian comrades. It was a grim, exhausting day – and, as soldiering experiences go, far more rewarding than life in the British army. 

‘When I first signed up for the British army, there was drill and discipline, and if you were punished, your instructor would make you do press ups – that keeps you fit and toughens you up,’ said JK, whose own great-great grandfather won the Victoria Cross in world war one. ‘By the time I left a few years ago, it was like a youth club – the instructors weren’t allowed to be tough any more.