The Ministry of Defence has announced that a member of the UK Armed Forces died in Ukraine on Tuesday, 9 December, following what officials described as a “tragic accident” during a weapons trial conducted by Ukrainian forces.
In its statement, the MoD said the soldier “was injured in a tragic accident whilst observing Ukrainian forces test a new defensive capability, away from the front lines.” No further details about the system involved or the circumstances of the incident were released.
The announcement made clear that the serviceman was not engaged in combat operations and had been working in an observer role. The death marks one of the few publicly confirmed UK military fatalities linked to Britain’s support mission in Ukraine.
The MoD said the family had been informed, adding “our thoughts are with them at this sad and difficult time.”
UK personnel have been involved in training, advising, and technical support roles for Ukraine since before the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Officials have repeatedly stressed that British troops are not deployed in a combat capacity. Further details are expected once internal reporting processes conclude.
An accident is an accident. Interestingly only bad news seems to get the BBC interested.
Need to give the family some space, learn quickly from this mistake and hope that he/she did not die in vein.
RIP to the personel and my thoughts are with the family.
RIP condolences to the family.
RIP. And, thank you to all you Brits standing up for liberty and justice. As an American, I am ashamed of our morally bankrupt leader.
I couldn’t help but notice the BBC news piece confirming UK personnel in a non combat/training role and special forces about which nothing (Quite rightly ), is publicised.
This is the first time to my knowledge this has been said on main time BBC.
I think the word is out to start conditioning the UK public that we may become involved more directly.
It was remiss of me not to express my sympathy, condolences and pride in the service member who list their life.
It’s been public knowledge, if not exactly in the public domain, for quite a while now that we have people conducting training in Ukraine and working to coordinate industry- I certainly wasn’t surprised that there was a UK forces member in Ukraine though I am surprised that their range safety is lax enough for someone to actually be killed, if that’s what happened.
TorpedoJ, the BBC News at Ten just now said that the deceased was watching a test of an attack drone and that a Ukrainian national was wounded. Surely the British serviceman was not controlling the range (if it was a range) and was positioned where he was told to be?
Totally agree.
Testing new weapons is inherently very risky.
Not suggesting it was the deceased’s fault, but you’d think with so many Western companies testing weapons (which is presumably what this was) in Ukraine the Ukrainians would have picked up our range safety standards. That observers have been allowed to be at risk seems very strange, don’t we keep them in a bunker a long way away for just about anything?
Rest in peace and we should all be thankful for their service.
A devoted patriot whose spirit will inspire the liberation of Ukraine from the chains of imperialism and racism. May his passing serve as a blessing to all of humanity and the global order!
He was SFSG using and anti drone weapon system, with a couple of Ukraine SF lads. RIP.