UK Conservative MP’s son joins Ukraine war, despite warnings and without telling his mother

A group of British ex-servicemen — including the son of a Conservative lawmaker — have arrived in Ukraine bent on fighting Russians, despite UK government warnings against joining the war.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss appeared to give Britons license to join up when she said on February 27: “Absolutely, if that’s what they wanted to do.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, and the head of the armed forces have all disowned Truss’ comment, and she reversed herself Wednesday.

Foreign Office advice warns against all travel to Ukraine, and Britons wanting to help should rather donate money to a national fundraising appeal, she told a news conference in Washington.

“What I said the other week was expressing support for the Ukrainian cause. They are fighting a just war, and we are doing all we can to support them,” Truss said.

But Ben Grant, 30, who served for five years as a Royal Marines commando, is among seven British former soldiers who arrived in Ukraine over the weekend, The Guardian reported.

https://twitter.com/Caucasuswar/status/1502042006943674376?s=20&t=MBOtnjPyuj09VEvpWilN3w

His mother, Helen Grant, is a Conservative lawmaker and former minister who is Johnson’s special envoy on girls’ education.

Ben Grant, a father of three, says he had not informed his mother before going, following a stint working in Iraq as a private security contractor.

Speaking to The Guardian in Lviv railway station before boarding a train for Kyiv, he said he chose to go after viewing television footage of a bombed house in Ukraine where a child could be heard screaming.