Volunteer fighter says raid worse than reports
AVOLUNTEER fighter from Cornwall believes the situation at a bombed base in Ukraine is far worse than what has been reported by Western media.
Curtis is an ex-military man who served with the British Armed forces and is now near the city of Lviv, training to fight alongside Ukrainian soldiers against the Russians.
The 30-year-old, who did not want his family name published, flew out to Poland 10 days ago and then did the trip overland to the city in Ukraine, thanks to contacts in the military there.
He said he felt compelled to put his Army fatigues back on and pick up a machine gun because “Ukrainians are just like us in Britain”.
The Foreign Office has advised against people travelling to Ukraine and all British serving military personnel are banned from entering Ukraine.
Curtis, who normally works in a pub, was billeted with two other British volunteer fighters from Scotland and England and dozens more foreign fighters in a tent camp near the city of Lviv when it was bombed by Russian warplanes using cruise missiles.
“We’re all ex-services. There are at least 200 Brits in Ukraine fighting Russians. There are hundreds of soldiers from all over the world. When I first saw the pictures on TV, I thought this can’t continue like that. For me, Ukraine is like the UK. We’re the same. I was angry that Russia had invaded a peaceful country that’s just like us,” he said.
Curtis added: “There’s a massive humanitarian crisis in Ukraine right now. The situation is very bad.”
As reported by the BBC, Russian jets fired around 30 cruise missiles at a military base near Lviv, known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre, authorities in Lviv said. Most, though, were intercepted by the air defence system. However, the attack led to 37 casualties, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Curtis, who is now back at the camp after leaving it on a mission 10 hours before it was hit, is adamant that the reported number of casualties is not the true picture of what is happening on the ground. “Civilians haven’t been hit [here]. It’s all foreign volunteers who have been targeted. It was the military camp full of Western volunteers which got hit,” he said.
Curtis, who did not want the name of his unit made public, believes Russian television may be closer to the truth in term of casualties than Western news channels. Russian authorities are understood to have talked of a figure of 180 dead at the base while other news sources have said between 35 and 50.
Curtis said: “It’s definitely far worse than the Western media are claiming.”