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A British dad with no military experience made the brave decision to go fight for Ukraine and it nearly ended his marriage after not telling his wife.
Ben Spann, from Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, has no ties to Ukraine but decided to join the military fight against Vladimir Putin’s troops with four ex-British soldiers.
However, the 36-year-old failed to tell his 16-year-old son and wife that he would be fighting in the battle, leaving his wife “pretty p***** off” and threatening to throw him out.
Mr Spann, who runs an anti-knife crime charity, told family he was going to Poland to help aid Ukrainian refugees but he always intended to go fight.
After his arrival, he said it became apparent the journey into the warzone was "a bit of a suicide mission".
Speaking to Sky News, he said: “I was getting some real grief off my wife and my son.
"My son was doubting whether I even cared about him, why I was doing this – same with my wife."
Mr Spann, who turned his life around after previously being involved in growing cannabis, said he spent five days in Ukraine with experienced British soldiers as they spent their time in a safe house in the western area of the country.
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He described the experience as “walking into a crack den in England” and it was a bit of a shock.
The group were waiting at the safe house for transport to arrive so they could collect weapons but it failed to turn up three days after they arrived in the country.
On that night, 10 members of a “Ukrainian SWAT team” stormed into their safe house, says Mr Spann.
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The group were interrogated with “AK-47s” pointed at their heads for 20-30 minutes as they searched the safe house.
Once Ukrainian authorities realised who they were, the situation calmed down but the incident occurred due to all the individuals failing to sign up for Ukraine's foreign legion before they entered the country.
The next day the group headed out to get some weapons at a base but failed to get any.
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Mr Spann claims to have seen two dead bodies of Russian soldiers propped up and a checkpoint, which he called an “eye opener” that “ things are getting real”.
They returned to the safe house but Mr Spann decided he would return home due to “grief” from home as the others looked to move on from that area of Ukraine.
Mr Spann has since returned from Ukraine after travelling back to the UK via Lublin Airport in Poland.
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Although the emotions of his worried wife of 19 years turned to anger once he got back home, he says.
Mr Spann said: “"My wife was pretty p***** off saying she was going to kick me out and this, that and the other.”
He added: “My son's okay. He never went through the anger process. I just think he was happy and glad I was back out of there."
- Russia Ukraine war
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Vladimir Putin
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