Yorkshireman believed to be first Briton to die fighting for Russia against Ukraine

A man from South Yorkshire is believed to be the first British citizen to die fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine.Bradley Townsend, a 33-year-old fisher from Barnsley, left Britain in April to join up with Russian separatists in eastern Donbas to aid in their invasion of Ukraine, despite having no previous combat experience or familiar ties to eastern Europe. Alongside 49-year-old Ben Stimson and 39-year-old Aiden Minnis, Townsend was granted Russian citizenship for joining the country’s military campaign.He is believed to have been killed by a remote-controlled first-person-view drone near Lyman, a city in Donetsk, on 10 June. He appeared in videos posted to social media by pro-Russian accounts, including one seemingly owned by Stimson, who was jailed in the UK in 2015 prior to Russia’s full scale invasion for travelling to join pro-Russian troops to fight in the region.Although Townsend’s death was only widely reported on Monday, unconfirmed reports that he had been killed began circulating in June. One pro-Russian report, seen by LBC, described Townsend as a “warrior in a holy war” who had “sacrificed his life for the cause”.Back in his native Yorkshire, his death was met with sadness and frustration. One former friend posted that Townsend, who was understood to have had struggled with mental health and addiction, was a “normal guy” who had been “indoctrinated” by people who “saw his vulnerability as an opportunity to recruit him into their twisted cause”, while another said that he had been “brainwashed” by his fellow British defectors.In videos taken after he had joined up with Russian forces, Townsend could be seen describing himself as a “normal working-class lad from Yorkshire” and laughing with Stimson and Minnis as the trio drank and played cards. He had also posted that the Donbas miners had donated to miners in Yorkshire during strikes in the 1980s, before he was born, and he intended to “repay that favour”.In a post after his death, Minnis described Townsend as “our beloved comrade-in-arms” who went “into the storm and fell on the battlefield” while comparing Ukrainians to Nazis, a common analogy used in Russian propaganda.In the same post, Minnis said that Townsend “sacrificed his life for our cause. His service was brief but he blazed the brightest star”.Townsend, who reportedly told his family he was travelling to Romania when he left Britain in April, also defended his decision to go to Russia on social media, while acknowledging he would be “persecuted” if he ever went home.In a post he wrote: “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. This was my own decision, I wasn’t pushed into anything.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTom Tugendhat, the former Conservative MP and security minister who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, expressed his sympathies to Townsend’s family but described his actions as “unbelievably stupid” and “extremely misguided”, adding: “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.”The Foreign Office is supporting Townsend’s family.