A BRIT who went to fight in Ukraine said he didn’t tell his wife before he left for the warzone.
Ben Spann, 36, revealed that his “pretty p***** off” partner threatened to leave him when she found out he went to join Ukraine’s Foreign Legion.
But he is now back home in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire after he left Ukraine, fearing that with no military training he was on a “suicide mission” in the country.
Ben told Sky News he told his family he was going Poland to help Ukrainian refugees but they were furious when they found out what he was up to.
“At that point, I was getting some real grief off my wife and my son,” he said
“My son was doubting whether I even cared about him, why I was doing this – same with my wife.
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“My wife was pretty p***** off saying she was going to kick me out and this, that and the other.
“She’s okay now. I’ve been with her for 19 years. 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.”
Ben runs an anti-knife crime charity and has previously been involved in growing cannabis.
He said wanted to help defend Ukraine because he believed “it was the right thing to do” but soon it turned into “an absolute nightmare”.
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When he initially arrived in Ukraine, he initially spent five days in a safe house in western Ukraine with four ex-British soldiers he met on the plane.
He stayed at a “tiny” safe house which had no beds or running water in western Ukraine with several other volunteers.
“It was like walking into a crack den in England, to be honest with you,” he said.
“That was a bit of a shock thinking: ‘F****** hell, this is the reality’.”
At one point he had a gun pointed at his head after the property was searched by a “Ukrainian SWAT team”.
Ben now regrets going to Ukraine and admits that with no military experience, he was “more of a burden”.
“I wouldn’t recommend non-military people going out there,” he said.
It comes as…
Fighters from around the world were invited to join Ukraine’s army and take on Russian troops at the end of February, soon after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion.
Since then, dozens of British war heroes – including dads and grandads – have been flocking to Ukraine to take on Vladimir Putin’s army.
Like Ben, many kept where they have been going a secret, with on sniper, who served in the Army for a decade, telling his wife he was going bird-watching.
The ranks of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion reportedly also contain a teenage soldier with the Coldstream Guards.
The 19-year-old joined veterans who crossed from Poland and is still in his Army camouflage gear.
PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.
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