Two British men fighting for Russia against Ukraine should be arrested and jailed, a former British commander has said.
Ben Stimson, 48, Aiden Minnis, 37, are known to be fighting in Ukraine for Vladimir Putin’s regime.
In a video posted online this weekend, seen by The Mirror, Stimson and former National Front member Minnis posed in front of a Russian flag wearing military fatigues.
“Yes, yes, I’m back in Russia, I’m back in uniform,” said Stimson in his Lancashire accent, before brandishing a Ukrainian grenade and adding: “We’ve got some British taxpayers’ returns.”
In a separate video, he is understood to say: “Every man takes his choice...a lot of us, the foreign volunteers, have chosen to come over to this side, to the Russian side.”
Stimson’s videos from the frontline of Russia’s war with Ukraine also reportedly show soldiers walking past dead bodies in muddy fields, and digging up a grenade.
Former British Army commander Colonel Richard Kemp has branded Stimson and his close friend Minnis “traitors”.
“These two are an absolute disgrace and are traitors who upon their return to the UK should be arrested and jailed,” he told The Mirror.
“These two traitors clearly don’t know who the enemy is.”
Stimson, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, has already spent time in prison in the UK for supporting pro-Russia forces in Ukraine. He is said to have flown to Moscow via Istanbul in February on a three-month Russian visa.
The Mirror reports he was detained at Manchester Airport, where he was questioned under the terrorism act, and his phones and laptop were confiscated, but was still allowed to make his journey.
Stimson is understood to have been disowned by his father.
Martin Stimson, a 76-year-old former town councillor from Mossley, Greater Manchester, told The Mirror: “I’ve cut him off. Before I cut him off he was in Moscow.
“I’ve been looking after Ben on and off for years and years. He’s on his own now. He’s 48 now he can do what he wants.
“He’s been a constant worry. I want a bit of peace at my age. You never know what he’ll do next.”Stimson was jailed for five years and four months in 2017 on a terrorism charge, after spending four months in Ukraine in 2015.
He reportedly traveled to the Donbass region where conflict was taking place. He claimed he went there to carry out humanitarian work by driving ambulances.
The prosecution said he was inspired to join pro-Russia rebels in Ukraine, and had shown a particular interest in ‘the Army of Novorussia’ - or New Russia - a drive to expand Russian territory into Ukraine.
The Independent reported at the time how Stimson had posted a photo on Facebook showing him holding an AK-47 assault rifle, and summed up Donbass as “vodka, women and guns”
Stimson pleaded guilty in 2017 to a charge of assisting others in committing terrorism acts.
Stimson was at the time not believed to have engaged in fighting in 2015. Sentencing him, a judge said: "You ultimately did no physical harm to anyone but you assisted the militia by your presence and your involvement, and you will have given a lead to others."I accept you do not hold extremist views and you have expressed your regret for your actions."It is clear to me that your intention of going there was not to fight but to escape your life in the United Kingdom, perhaps to find adventure and to possibly carry out humanitarian work.”
But since travelling back to Ukraine in February, Stimson is said to have admitted on social media he did fight in 2015.
Meanwhile Stimson’s close friend Minnis, from Chippenham in Wiltshire, was reportedly convicted in 2006 of assaulting relatives of a driver, whose dangerous driving led to the deaths of his cousin and girlfriend.
He reportedly assaulted a homeless man in 2008, when his lawyer is said to have told the court that Minnis “was a member of the National Front, a class A drug addict and an alcoholic by the age of 20.”
A photo seen by The Mirror shows Minnis holding semi-automatic weapons and wearing Russian army uniform, posing with an Irish flag.
He told the newspaper: “My family heritage is from Ireland and I have Irish family. But also an ideological thing.”
A Home Office statement said: “Any person who travels from the UK to conflict zones to engage in unlawful activity, should expect to be investigated upon their return.”
