Armed Forces minister James Heappey has warned serving British soldiers and veterans who think they can “do a couple of weeks” in Ukraine and “take some selfies” not to travel to fight against Russian aggression.

Mr Heappey told Sky News the government position is that if you are a serving member of the armed forces and choose to join the conflict in Ukraine, you are considered to be breaking the law.

The defence minister told Kay Burley that any serving army personnel who choose to go to Ukraine “will be in a lot of trouble”.

“This is not the time for people to be going there, and the Ukrainians have made clear, once you cross the border with the with the expectation to fight, you’re in it for good,” he told Sky News.

“So people who think they can go there, do a couple of weeks, take some selfies, get some Instagram shots and come home, that is not the way the Ukrainians are viewing the people that go and fight for them. British people should not be doing it.”

He continued: “To be clear, the Army has put out a statement overnight to say this. It is illegal for British service personnel to first of all go absent without leave in the first place, but to go absent without leave in order to fight in a foreign war is simply unacceptable, and frankly risks the United Kingdom being wrongly claimed by Russia to be a belligerent in this.

“Service people who might think they are doing the right thing should reflect it is 100% not the correct thing to be doing.”

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Mr Heappey said that he understood, as a former Army officer himself, that “there’s a thing deep inside you as a soldier that makes you see TV images and makes you want to fight”, adding: “But no good comes from British service people or veterans going to Ukraine to be a part of this.”

Read more: Briton who volunteered to fight against Russia turned down and told he would be ‘a liability’

The defence minister’s remarks seemingly row back on comments from Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who last week said she would “absolutely” support volunteers who went to Ukraine to fight.

It comes after the Army yesterday confirmed a number of British soldiers have gone AWOL and may have travelled to Ukraine.

A spokesperson told Sky News: “We are aware of a small number of individual soldiers who have disobeyed orders and gone absent without leave, and may have travelled to Ukraine in a personal capacity.

“We are actively and strongly encouraging them to return to the UK.

“All Service Personnel are prohibited from travelling to Ukraine until further notice.

“This applies whether the Service Person is on leave or not. Personnel travelling to Ukraine will face disciplinary and administrative consequences.”

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