Indeed, when he first came to Ukraine in March, he planned to do aid work rather than fight. He had been “burnt”, he says, by Syria, which ended with his prosecution in Britain for helping the YPG plan “terrorist acts” against Turkey, which opposes Kurdish separatism. The case – one of several investigations into British YPG fighters – eventually collapsed, but not before Burke had spent seven months on remand in Wandsworth Prison. He named the Dark Angels after his black SUV, which he used for aid deliveries. However, after reports emerged of Russian atrocities in Irpin and Bucha, the Dark Angels’ mission became rather murkier. “It was hard for me to hear all these stories of families being murdered,” he says. “By then, a few other people I knew were also out here and I thought we could make a decent combination doing both humanitarian and military operations.” Surprisingly, this does not mean an elite outfit staffed purely by ex-Paras and SAS. Instead, the Angels are a sort of international Dirty Dozen, including an ex-convict, a Frenchman and an ex-US Marine. Among them is fellow Syria veteran Mark Ayres, who served a six-year sentence for robbery after leaving the Royal Green Jackets. He says fighting in Ukraine is better than being an “old kid living in a rented room” at home. Others have no military experience at all – including former student Sam Newey, 21, whose older brother fought with Burke in Syria. Burke advised him to train as a doctor first, to see if he could handle “the wounded, the dead, and the stress.”
