Putin mercenaries ‘find Briton’s body’
THE head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said last night his forces had found the body of one of the two British volunteers missing in Ukraine.
Details were limited, but the group said documents belonging to both Britons were found on the body. It did not say where it had been found.
A photo posted alongside an online statement appeared to show passports bearing the names of Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry.
Mr Parry, 28, and Mr Bagshaw, 48, were helping to evacuate civilians from war-torn areas near Bakhmut and Kramatorsk, towns in the eastern region of Donetsk, when they went missing last week.
The two volunteers reportedly left Kramatorsk for the town of Soledar on Friday morning and were reported missing on Saturday night after contact with them was lost.
Using a Mercedes Sprinter van and worn- out cars, the pair were helping to take supplies
to the frontlines and evacuate residents to safety.
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 only make him a ‘hindrance’ and
instead channelled his efforts into evacuations.
Speaking to Sky News in December, Mr Parry told of the horrific scenes he witnessed in Bakhmut and the stress of operating under the constant threat of severe injury or death.
Mr Bagshaw was born in the UK but lived in Christchurch, New Zealand.
He bought a one-way ticket to Ukraine in March and was operating in co- ordination with the New Zealand-based NGO Kiwi Aid and Refugee Evacuation (KARE).
His parents, Philip and Susan Bagshaw, described him as an ‘intelligent, independently minded person’.
Eastern Ukraine has been the scene of fierce fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian troops but yesterday Russian president Vladimir Putin conducted a military reshuffle in a move that appeared to reflect dissatisfaction from the Kremlin.
General Sergei Surovikin,
‘Details were limited’
known as ‘General Armageddon’ after his bombing of Aleppo in Syria in 2017, was removed as Russia’s top commander in Ukraine just three months into the job.
Chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov has replaced him to lead what Russia calls its ‘special military operation’ against its neighbour.
The Kremlin said: ‘Raising the level of leadership of the special military operation is linked to the expansion of the scale of the tasks being fulfilled as part of it.’