A fisherman from Yorkshire has become the first Briton to die fighting on behalf of Vladimir Putin’s army in the Ukraine war.
Just 10 weeks after touching down in Moscow, Bradley Townsend, 33, from Barnsley, south Yorkshire, was killed in a “storm operation” by a remote-controlled drone in eastern Ukraine, near the city of Lyman.
Four years on from Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the 33-year-old Putin sympathiser jetted off to the Russian capital to sign a contract to fight for the Kremlin in April.
Despite the 33-year-old’s striking lack of military experience, British pro-Russian fighters Aiden Minnis and Ben Stimson are said to have recruited him online, while Mr Townsend told family members he was visiting Romania, LBC revealed.
A Russia-associated social media account paid tribute to Mr Townsend, branding the fisherman a “warrior in a holy war” after “sacrificing his life for the cause”.
In footage shared online, the man previously said he was “a normal working-class lad from Yorkshire” and reiterated his support for Russian separatists.
He has now become the first British person to die fighting for the Russian President.
In the Telegram video from April, he said: “I came with the idea that I probably wouldn’t be able to go home. I’d definitely get persecuted if I went back.
‘I’m not here for a suicide mission, but I understand that’s what can happen,’ Bradley Townsend said just weeks before his death
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“I’m not here for a suicide mission, but I understand that’s what can happen. This was my own decision, I wasn’t pushed into anything.”
Before his death, the amateur soldier said he was partly driven by his childhood, having grown up in a mining community.
He said he was in Moscow to “repay that favour” after claiming Donbas workers had handed a month’s salary to Yorkshire miners back in the 1980s.
Tom Tugendhat, the Tory MP for Tonbridge, said he was “very sorry for him and his family” but he insisted the decision to join the Russian army was “extremely misguided”.
The Yorkshireman has become the first British person to die fighting for the Russian President in Ukraine since 2014
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“It’s extremely misguided and, you know, no question about it, it’s criminal because you’re engaging in an army that is committing the most barbarous war crimes that the world has seen in decades,” he said.
Stimson, a pro-Russian soldier, said Mr Townsend’s flat cap had been delivered back to the UK and would be left on Ilkley Moor”.
The fighter, who was jailed in the UK back in 2017 for joining a Russian-backed militia group in Ukraine, said he had advised Mr Townsend to remain in Britain.
“Brad was adamant he wanted to go and fight,” he said.
The Foreign Office is aware of his death and has confirmed it is providing support to Mr Townsend’s family, it is understood.
Those who knew the deceased have spoken out online about their views on how Mr Townsend ended up supporting Putin’s war on Ukraine.
One schoolfriend claimed the 33-year-old had been “brainwashed” into becoming one of the few Britons signing up to serve on the frontline.
Another insisted the pro-Putin fighter was a “normal guy” who had been indoctrinated by those who “saw his vulnerability as an opportunity to recruit him into their twisted cause”.
Those who reportedly recruited him, Minnis and Stimson could both be dragged before British courts for terror charges if they return to the UK.