Fears grow for missing aid workers in Donetsk
CONCERNS are growing for two British volunteers who have been missing in Ukraine for three days.
Christopher Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 8, were helping to evacuate civilians in the eastern region of Donetsk where fierce fighting has raged for weeks.
The duo left the city of Kramatorsk to drive to the town of Soledar on Friday, Ukrainian police said, but never made it and all contact with them has been lost.
Mr Parry, who was born in Cornwall but later moved to Cheltenham, was a running coach before he bought a one-way ticket to Ukraine in March.
He felt compelled to help Ukraine defend its land against Russia and intended to sign up for the country’s legion of foreign fighters, but said he was told his lack of combat experience would make him a ‘hindrance’, so he channelled his efforts into evacuations.
Speaking to Sky News in December, Mr Parry told of the horrific scenes he witnessed in the city of Bakhmut.
‘I went to a military command unit and spoke to a number of soldiers who described Bakhmut as the worst place they had ever been,’ he said. ‘They were saying, “this isn’t war, this is Hell”.’
Mr Bagshaw was born in the UK but lived in Christchurch, New Zealand. News of the volunteers’ disappearance comes as Ukrainian officials said fighting around Bakhmut and Soledar had intensified, and they were sending additional units to repel Russian attacks by the Wagner mercenary group.