Britain's war in the Ukraine
By Gregor Tassie
From the start of the conflict, Britain was first among European NATO states to give lethal assistance to the Ukraine, and this has continued. In December 2022, Britain led the formation of a Joint Expeditionary Force of the Nordic Northern Neighbours Group of ten countries. (1) Rishi Sunak affirmed an increase of military and financial support to £2.3 billion and committed to the same, if not more, in 2023. (2) This compares to the EU funding of €3.1 billion. Britain is paying the Ukrainian army, structuring funds to the Ukraine through loans, facilitating borrowing from the World Bank, and grants.
The UK is the second biggest military contributor to the Ukraine. (3) Among arms being given are Next Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapons (NLAWs), Javelin hand-held rockets, Starstreak satellite equipment, Stormer, Samson, Scimitar, Wolfhound, Husky and Mastiff armoured vehicles, 84,000 helmets, Brimstone 2 missiles, and M270 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), M109 howitzers and Black Hornet Nano Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs). (4) Britain’s leading companies involved are BAE, Babcock, and Rolls Royce, employing 70,000 worldwide. The military-industrial complex is budgeting to 2026 suggesting this conflict may last for another three years. History informs us that Britain has a long engagement in the region.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INVOLVEMENT
Following the 1917 October revolution, Churchill persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to abandon isolationism and join the intervention of thirteen countries to bring down the Bolsheviks. (5) Britain sent troops to northern Russia and the Ukraine, collaborating with remnants of the Tsarist army. The conflict caused huge damage with ten million Soviet citizens killed.
Dissatisfied by the failed intervention, Britain continued to undermine the Soviet government by assassination attempts on Lenin and Bolshevik leaders. (6) However the influence of the British working class was instrumental in obliging the UK government to recognise the USSR in 1924. Trade and the League of Nations were important avenues for cooperation, yet there emerged further attempts to subvert the Soviet Union. Following Hitler’s ascent to power, MI6 enjoyed a ‘cordial relationship’ exchanging information on communism with the Gestapo till October 1937. (7) It was at this time MI6 started backing the Ukrainian nationalist movement. (8) In 1946, after the Nazis defeat, MI6 continued to sponsor the underground movement of Bandera and his Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists-B (OUN-B) operating in the USSR. (9) The OUP-B led by Bandera, who collaborated with the Nazis, murdered up to 100,000 Poles in 1943, an event condemned as genocide by the Polish parliament, and the European Parliament. The anniversary of Bandera’s birth was recently widely celebrated by the Zelensky regime, including in a tweet from the Ukrainian Parliament.
The Labour government issued work permits to 35,000 Ukrainian former POWs who had fought against the Red Army. They became the core of the anti-communist Association of Ukrainians (AUGB), which established branches active in expounding Ukrainian nationalism. (10)
Prior to 2020, about 32,000 Ukrainian-born British citizens, plus another 30,000 were registered with the AUGB and the Ukrainian Institute London (supported by the UK Foreign Office). The latter was formed in 1979 by a Ukrainian priest Josef Slipky who had served time in a Soviet jail for collaborating with the Nazis. The organisation has a well-funded network in Britain. Their website offers details on how to contact MPs, councillors, media, etc. to build support for the Ukraine. The Ukrainian Institute and AUGB are members of the anti-communist World Ukrainian Congress and the European Congress of Ukrainians. (11)
POST-SOVIET INVOLVEMENT
Commitment to the Ukraine by Britain dates from 1993 when President Kravchuk visited London, following Thatcher’s visit to Kiev in 1986. Military cooperation started in 1994 when the Duke of Gloucester led a Ministry of Defence delegation to the Ukraine for joint military exercises in the Black Sea near Ochakov. (12)
Following the illegal overthrow in 2014 of the elected Ukrainian president, Britain’s Ministry of Defence initiated Operation Orbital starting in 2015 and training 22,000 Ukrainian soldiers near Lvov. Between 30 and 75 British military advisors worked in Ukraine assisting in intelligence and expanding the Ukrainian armed forces and police. Additionally, the UK-led Operation Interflex involved 250 paratroopers from the 16th Air Assault Brigade in joint exercises with Estonia. UK jets were located in forward bases in Cyprus and Poland.
According to a former Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officer Vasily Prozorov. “When Zelensky visited London he secretly met with Richard Moore the head of MI6 (on 12th October 2020) and London proposed the training of officers for sabotage who knew English, and Russian and had been trained at Russian military colleges.” They established a UK military base at Ochakov on the Black Sea. No less than the US, “British intelligence treat Ukraine as a colony, using its territory for operations.” (13) According to Ukrainian Pravda, in the talks between Moore and Zelensky, three subjects were discussed; first attacking corruption, taking control of the state apparatus including courts, second the approach to Russia, and third, controlling Zelensky’s circle. (14)
On 21st June 2021, an agreement was signed between Britain and the Ukraine on board HMS Defender at Odessa which specified the provision by Britain to Ukraine of missiles, two mine-hunter vessels and eight warships as well as the building of a new naval base in the Sea of Azov. The following day, en route between Odessa and Batumi in Georgia, HMS Defender made an incursion into Russian waters of 3 kilometres when it was intercepted by two patrol boats and an SU24 fighter plane which fired warning shots across the Defender’s bows. Accordingly, the boat left Russian waters, however, according to a BBC reporter on board the crew were on “action stations” before they left Odessa. (15) On 27th June, documents were discovered that proved this was a planned event. (16)
BRITAIN INVOLVED IN WAR
As from March 2022, the Ukraine’s “intelligence, security and counterintelligence have been under the guidance of MI6 for organizing sabotage in the Donbass and Russia.” (17) British intelligence is protecting the tunnels through which arms are transported into the Ukraine and which are crucial to supplying of lethal weapons from NATO. (18)
The UK has been suspected of being involved in several major operations; attacking the Moskva ship, the Sevastopol naval base, the Crimea bridge and field operations in the Donbass. One of the most significant however is the blowing up of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022. Last summer a US aircraft carrier Kearsarge visited the Estonian Miinisadam navy base, and took part in the Baltops naval exercises near the Danish island of Bornholm.” (19) The exercises involved deep sea divers and helicopters close to the pipeline location. At the time of the three explosions at both pipelines, a military aircraft from a German airfield circled the pipeline three times and then landed at a Polish aerodrome. A few minutes after the explosions, the then British Prime Minister Truss texted the Secretary of State Blinken on her mobile phone, ‘It’s done !” (20) Intercepts of radio traffic were analysed by the Russian Ministry of Defence who accused the Royal Navy of planning, and carrying out the attack on 26th September. (21) Britain was also involved in launching a drone attack on the Sevastopol naval base.
Russian intelligence has reported that MI6 were involved in troop assaults on the Zaporozhy nuclear power station last summer and that British commandos were recently involved in the Kherson oblast. (22) Their role appears to be planning and leading small groups in special operations rather than taking part in large scale battles. It has been acknowledged by Lt. General Robert Magowan, that British troops are operating in the Ukraine. (23) The numbers include 350 commandos, ostensibly to protect the British embassy, however, there has been no denial of combat activities against Russia. It is disturbing that there have also been reports of attempted fake Russian chemical weapons attacks, similar to what happened in Syria. (24) According to intercepts in January 2023, the Royal Navy is planning to launch missiles on Russian targets in the Far East. (25)
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEACE
As NATO and the US are increasing military spending in 2023, and Russia is militarising its economy, it is unlikely the war will end soon. Merkel and Holland’s confessions that they were lying in signing the Minsk agreements in 2015 damage Russian confidence that Western states are trustworthy in negotiations. Merkel said in an interview that the purpose of Minsk was to buy time for Ukraine to re-arm and, therefore, not to achieve a peaceful resolution of the disputes with Russia. In Britain, as elsewhere in Europe and the US, the war is imposing a huge effect on economic life and living standards. The Financial Times, states that the UK in 2023 is going to endure the deepest recession of all the G7 countries. (26) The consequences of dwindling social spending, increasing strikes and public discontent prove that the conflict is unsustainable for Britain and other NATO states.
(1) Ben Wallace statement to parliament 20/12/2022 Ministry of Defence www.gov.uk
(2) PM opening remarks at JEF Summit: 19/12/22 www.gov.uk
(3) Kiel Institute for the World Economy
(4) What weapons are being given to Ukraine by the UK? BBC News
(5) From a conversation between the author and Sergey Kommisarenko the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK in December 1994
(6) Lockhart, The Memoirs of a Spy, Folio Society, 2010
(7) Lockhart, The Memoirs of a Spy, Folio Society, 2010
(8) Keith Jeffery, MI6: The history of the SIS 1909-1949, Bloomsbury 2003
(9) Stephen Dorril (2002). MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. Simon and Schuster. p224
(10) Stephen Dorril (2002). MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. Simon and Schuster. p233
(11) AUGB
(12) About us ‣ Ukrainian Institute London
(13) Украина - полигон для ЦРУ и британской MI6: Доказано подполковником СБУ tsargrad.tv (The Ukraine – polygon for the CIA and British MI6 – Evidence from a lt. colonel of the SBU tsargrad.tv)
(14) Важный для России разговор. Зачем Зеленский встречался с главой британской разведки - 13.07.2022 Украина.ру ukraina.ru (An important discussion for Russia. Why Zelensky met with the head of British intelligence – 13/7/22. Ukraina.ru)
(15) Russia warns Britain over ship near Crimea, says video shows warning shots UPI.com
(16) Classified Ministry of Defence documents found at bus stop BBC News
(17) Александр Ситников: разведывательная служба Великобритании MI-6 учит Зеленского новой тактике | 27.10.2022 | NVL novostivl.ru (Alexander Sitnikov: intelligence service of Great Britain MI-6 teaches Zelensky new tactics – 27/10/22 Novostivl.ru)
(18) https://www.osnmedia.ru/world/gomzikova-britanskaya-razvedka-mi-6-ukazala-tsel-rossijskim-kinzhalam-na-ukraine/?ysclid=lckrhs48d3178986481 (Gomzikova-British intelligence MI6 points a dagger at Russia in the Ukraine. Osmedia.ru)
(19) NATO - News: 16 NATO Allies and partners take part in exercise BALTOPS 22, 7/6/22 NATO News
(21) Russia blames UK navy for attacks on Nord Stream gas pipeline nypost.com
(23) British general acknowledges participation of UK marines in covert operations in Ukraine topwar.ru
(25) Report on Vasilyets website 6/1/2023.
(26) The Financial Times, 3/1/2023
Location of the attacks on Nord Stream 1 & 2 26/9/22 . Graphic by Lampel
