The Foreign Office has confirmed that two Britons who were reported missing in Ukraine were killed while attempting to conduct a humanitarian evacuation in the east of the nation.
Chris Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 47, a colleague who had dual citizenship with the UK and New Zealand, were attempting to evacuate an elderly woman from Soledar when their car was struck by an artillery round, according to Bagshaw’s relatives.
The men had been assisting those fleeing the war’s front lines as volunteers.
The Parry family paid homage to Chris in a statement, stating: “His altruistic commitment to help the old, young, and underprivileged there has made us and his broader family immensely proud.
“He was drawn to Ukraine in March at the beginning of the Russian invasion, during its darkest hour, and he assisted those in need, saving over 400 lives in addition to many abandoned animals. He will always remain in our hearts, despite the fact that it is impossible to express how much we shall miss him.
We urge the civilized nations of the world to stop this immoral war and to assist the Ukrainians in purging an aggressor from their homeland. Bagshaw’s parents, Prof. Philip and Dame Susan Bagshaw, who founded the Canterbury Charity hospital, said they were among “many parents who grieve the deaths of their sons and daughters.”
“The world ought to be firm and stand with Ukraine, providing them with the military support they require right now and aiding in their post-war reconstruction of their devastated nation.”
According to reports, Cheltenham-based running coach Parry recently admitted to Sky News that he had been going to frontline towns and villages to evacuate citizens.
I take each day as it comes, he declared. When you witness awful things, they can sometimes stay with you. But you are employed. You’re in a position of responsibility, therefore as soon as you pick these folks up, you must leave the area and escape the artillery, which is constantly firing nearby.
Genetics researcher Bagshaw arrived in Ukraine from New Zealand in April last year, according to his parents, and communicated with them frequently until September when he moved to a riskier area of the nation and ceased doing so.
At a news conference in Christchurch on Wednesday, the boy’s father stated that “he set off with a knapsack and travel guide and nothing else.”
We did make an effort to talk him out of going, Philip Bagshaw said. We quickly came to the conclusion that it was pointless.
He remarked, “We are informed he and his colleagues saved hundreds of people in the most incredible of circumstances, which the military will tell you they would never enter.”
Mother of Andrew alleged genocidal acts by Russia.
Susan Bagshaw alleged that “they are starving the people out of there.” “War crimes occur daily, and it is completely immoral.”
In a statement, New Zealand’s foreign ministry expressed its “condolences to the Bagshaw and Parry families at this terrible time.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, asserted earlier in January that his forces had discovered one of the men’s bodies. Prigozhin did not give the dead man’s name in a message that was posted on his Telegram channel, but he did say that paperwork belonging to both Britons had been discovered on his body.
A picture that appeared to show passports with the names Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry was uploaded along with the statement.
On January 6, the two were last seen en route from Kramatorsk to Soledar in east Ukraine. As part of Moscow’s multi-month effort to annex Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk area, the town known for its salt mining has seen intense fighting.
