Special Force units were told to prepare for mobilisation to Ukraine by military planners tasked with readying forces by the Cabinet Office, according to two military sources with knowledge of the directive.
The orders, which also applied to Special Force reservists, put personnel on standby in order to ensure military equipment is in working order before receiving a notice to mobilise to Ukraine.
Military experts have said that while UK Special Forces are not a traditional peacekeeping unit their ability to be deployed rapidly along with their expertise in intelligence and reconnaissance make them an ideal tool to spearhead the “coalition of the willing”.
He said: “Its very difficult at this stage without knowing what sort of peace needs to be kept. A lot of this will be contingency planning, what can be done rapidly, and the quickest tool at the disposal of 10 Downing Street is the Special Forces.
Professor Wyss added that this will not be a traditional peace deal, but a temporary ceasefire and any peacekeeping force could be used to enforce terms between Ukraine and Russia. The potential for so-called greyzone attacks – a term for operations launched when two countries are neither at peace or direct war – or the dangers of escalation could require the skills Special Forces are equipped with.
Dr Simon Anglim, a fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College, said UK special forces are “one of our remaining world-class military capabilities” who will be used in a peacekeeping force for “intelligence gathering, VIP protection, some training and possibly countering Russian ‘hybrid’ activity”.
Optimism of a ceasefire
Speaking from Downing Street after a virtual summit with European leaders last week, the prime minister said a “coalition of the willing” is pressing ahead with the pledge to back a ceasefire deal with 10,000 troops on the ground.
An MOD spokesperson said: “It is the longstanding policy of successive government’s not to comment on Special Forces activity”.
A specialist and secretive force
The work of the UK’s Special Forces is highly secretive. Units are regularly deployed to areas where the UK is not officially involved in conflict to conduct intelligence operations, kidnap rescue, and reconnaissance missions.
The Special Forces operate without the need for approval from the House of Commons, and the Ministry of Defence routinely says it does not comment on the activity of the unit. However, media reports have often placed the elite military force in countries across the globe.
A 2023 analysis of media reports surrounding the unit’s work by a research group, Action on Armed Violence, compiled a list of Special Forces activities to show they had been involved in covert operations in 19 countries since 2011.
The list of deployments includes Nigeria, the Philippines and Russia, as well as in Syria, and Mali. After a year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leaked Pentagon papers revealed that fifty members of UK Special Forces were listed as being present in Ukraine during the conflict.
The specialist units have reportedly participated in hostage rescues and exfiltration, taking part in the rescue of two dozen British diplomats and their families after the outbreak of fighting in Sudan, as well as helping plan an operation to rescue a couple held in the Philippines in 2019.
While peacekeeping missions are not a usual deployment for UK Special Forces, their expertise is believed to be a key factor in ensuring peace, reducing harm, and building confidence of wider troops deployed to Ukraine.
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