Cardiff-based teacher Jake Priday, told The Economist that he left Ukraine after just nine hours upon realising he was required to sign an indefinite contract.
“To me it’s deceiving,” the 25-year-old British Army veteran said. “They’re selling you a dream – you can help the Ukrainian people! – but then they’re throwing you into the worst place possible in a war zone.”
Mr Priday said he convinced nearly 20 others not to sign the contracts, which would place the volunteers under Ukraine’s martial law barring any man aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country.
“I was trying to explain to them what martial law really means – and that it’s up to Ukraine to decide when it ends,” he said. “It can be extended and extended. But no one at the base was explaining this to the volunteers.”
He said he also feared what would happen if any foreign volunteers like himself were captured by Russia.
