Two British aid volunteers have gone missing from Ukraine's frontline, according to reports from local police. Andrew Bagshaw, 48, and Christopher Parry, 28, were last seen on January 6, when they were helping with evacuation efforts near Soledar, in the Donetsk region.
The city is in the eastern Bakhmut region, where Ukrainian troops have been involved in heavy fighting with Russian forces. Aid workers have been helping civilians to escape the area, with evacuations often carried out during Russian attacks, the Mirror reports.
At 5.15pm on January 7, Ukrainian police were told that two men, who are “citizens of Great Britain, aged 28 and 48”, had disappeared. Authorities confirmed a search has been launched for the pair, while the Foreign Office said they are aware of reports that the two are missing.
Mr Bagshaw was born in the UK but relocated to Christchurch, New Zealand and has been working with a team of Ukrainian and international volunteers to delivering aid and evacuate citizens, according to stuff.co.nz. His parents Philip and Dame Susan Bagshaw, who set up the Canterbury Charity Hospital, confirmed their son is currently missing.
Tenby Powell, founder of Kiwi KARE, a charity working with volunteers in Ukraine, said his organisation had been assisting Mr Bagshaw and provided him with a vehicle to use for the evacuations. However, he said he had not been able to get in contact with Mr Bagshaw for 24 hours and was concerned for his welfare, especially given the area he is working in.
He said he still hopes that Andrew will be found alive and told Stuff: “I got to know Andrew reasonably well. He was absolutely dedicated to that work. He did really extraordinary work under difficult circumstances.”
In a statement issued today, Mr Bagshaw's parents described their son as a very intelligent independently minded person, who signed up as a volunteer in Ukraine to help civilians, believing this was the morally right thing to do.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces have reduced Bakhmut to "burnt ruins". The area has been under heavy shelling for more than six months.
