Two British aid workers - one from Warrington - have been captured by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, it was reported today. The two men, both volunteer humanitarian workers, were said to have been taken by Vladimir Putin's forces while heading towards Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast region of south-eastern Ukraine on Monday.
Paul Urey, from Warrington, and Dylan Healy, 22, have not been heard from since 4am on Monday. Presidium Network, a group doing relief work in Ukraine and said to have been monitoring their efforts, raised the alarm, reports The Mirror.
Paul, 45, and Dylan were driving to help evacuate a woman and two children when communications between them ceased, according to the reports. However, suspicion was raised when communication resumed sometime later but containing uncharacteristic errors.
It comes after the Foreign Office confirmed that a British man has been killed in Ukraine and another missing. And this morning, International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News that the Foreign Office is trying to identify two Brits who have been kidnapped in Ukraine.
She said: "The Foreign Office obviously has been working very closely with those in Ukraine both to make sure the identification is correct and indeed to work with local authorities and to support families here. As we've set out right from the beginning we don't want British nationals to go and fight but there are many many ways in which so many people… can all support."
Trevelyan added: "We don't want people to go and fight but obviously the Foreign Office is doing all it can to support and identify these two people."
The Mirror says it has seen WhatsApp and Viber messages that show a long gap between interactions before later, suspicious-looking messages claiming they are safe. But they were notably not written in the missing men's natural style - and failed to issue code words for security, according to the reports.
In the later Viber messages between the woman being evacuated and one of the men, texts are riddled with spelling errors, whereas the WhatsApp messages from before their reported disappearance had been consistently written clearly.
Furthermore, The Mirror says it has also learned that the woman claims her house was raided by Russian forces, mere hours after her most recent message from the man's phone. She told Dominik Bryne, of Presidium Network, that they forced her husband to lie on the floor and demanded to know how they knew the 'British spies'.
It is unclear where the two British humanitarian workers have been taken, and both men are said to have gone to Ukraine voluntarily to aid in evacuations and other humanitarian efforts. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has been contacted for comment on the situation.
Scott Sibley, who reportedly previously served in UK military, died on April 23, according to a GoFundMe page set up in his memory. Unconfirmed reports suggested the veteran, known as 'Sibs' to his pals, and another Brit who is missing, had been fighting alongside Ukrainians against the Russian forces.
The FCDO said a British man had died in Ukraine while another was still missing, but did not provide any details on what the men had been doing in the war-torn country. Vladimir Putin claims his 'special military operation' is to 'de-Nazify' Ukraine and that his conflict is against NATO powers - a multilateral organisation that he sees as a direct threat to Russia.
Moscow has also hit out at the UK for saying Britain would support Ukraine's right to hit Russian military targets on Russian soil, using UK weapons. It comes as the UK Defence Secretary said Nato forces 'outnumber and outgun' Russia.
Ben Wallace warned the crews of Britain's nuclear weapon-armed submarines were 'deep underwater, hiding, waiting, in case Britain needs to be protected'. Russia's President yesterday warned he would mount a 'lightning-fast' retaliation if the West intervened in Ukraine, warning 'we have all the tools' and we will use them if necessary'.
But Defence Secretary Wallace said he doesn't think Putin will use nuclear weapons. He said Russia's President has committed 'massive strategic blunders', adding: "His so-called lightning invasion of Ukraine hasn't gone too well."
