The Foreign Office (FCDO) is seeking more information about claims that two British men who went to Ukraine to provide humanitarian aid have been captured by the Russian military.
An NGO said that it had passed on details to the department after the men were detained by Russian forces in southern Ukraine having gone into an area to help bring out a family.
Presidium Network, a UK-based organisation that says it carries out evacuations of families and individuals from warzones, said it was aware of the men, who travelled to Ukraine on a “freelance basis”.
A spokesperson for Presidium said it was in contact with the mother of one of the men – who it had last communicated with on Monday.
The organisation said it had been intending to work with the men, who were missing south of Zaporizhzhia, and provided details of messages in which they had reported their location. Both appeared to be members of the public with little or no experience of military or humanitarian work.
There was no immediate comment from the FCDO.
“The Foreign Office is doing all it can to support and identify these two people,” the British trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, told Sky News.
The Institute for the Study of War thinktank, warned this week that Russian forces were stepping up operations to abduct Ukrainian citizens for use in prisoner exchanges.
On Thursday, the Foreign Office confirmed that a British citizen had been killed in Ukraine and a second was missing, amid reports that both were volunteers who had gone to fight in the country.
The Briton who died was understood to be Scott Sibley, a former soldier who had served overseas. Ex-colleagues paid tribute on a Facebook page run by veterans of the commandos logistics support squadron, where he was described as a man who had “showed commando spirit until the end”.
Sibley is believed to be the first British fighter known to have been killed in combat in Ukraine.
A small number of serving British personnel are understood to have gone absent without leave to join the resistance against the Russian invasion, while veterans and Britons without combat experience are thought to have also travelled to Ukraine.
There was initially confusion about the government’s position after the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, in comments during an interview to the BBC on February 26, said she would “absolutely” support UK nationals who chose to fight for Ukraine.
The Facebook page where tributes were paid to Sibley posted what was understood to be a photo of him while serving in the military in his younger days. He is seen in uniform, standing at what appears to be Bagram airfield in Afghanistan.
Source: Guardian
