Member of UK armed forces dies in road traffic incident in Ukraine

A member of the UK armed forces has died in a road traffic incident in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced.

The individual's family has been informed and has "requested a period of grace before further details are released", the MoD's statement said.

The incident on Saturday was not the result of hostile action, the BBC understands.

The British government has previously acknowledged a small number of personnel in Ukraine to support Kyiv's armed forces and provide security to diplomatic staff.

It is not known which service the individual was in or what their role was.

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting shared his "deepest condolences" with the their loved ones, writing on social media: "This is very sad news for the family and for those grieving with them in our armed forces."

A 28-year-old paratrooper, who died while watching the testing of a new defensive capability away from the front lines in December, was the first member of the armed forces killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

On Sunday, a Russian drone hit and damaged a train in Yahodyn, near the Ukraine-Poland border - shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and top European security officials had passed through on a different train on the same line.

The UK's national security adviser Jonathan Powell was among those on board.

No casualties were reported. Russia's defence ministry said it had struck "railway infrastructure" in western Ukraine, but Ukraine's state railway company said the drone's intended target "could have been the diplomatic train".

The UK has been one of Ukraine's closest allies during the war.

Ukraine was the location of Andy Burnham's first overseas trip as prime minister in August, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and promised to keep up the pressure on Russia despite Moscow's "outrageous threats".

Chairing his first meeting of the "coalition of the willing", set up by the UK and France under his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, Burnham also agreed to hand over blueprints for British-made components for Scalp missiles.