Briton Soldier Kidnapped In Ukraine Questioned On Russian State Television

Two aid workers, Paul Urey, 45, and Dylan Healy, 20, are believed to have been detained on Monday and accused of being spies.

According to report, British soldier captured in Ukraine has been paraded on Russian state television, asking if he was safe and when he might be able to return home latest news revealed.

Andrew Hill, 35, a father of four, appeared injured, with bandages around his head and his arm in a sling.

Asked a series of questions by his Russian captors, he spoke quietly, barely looking up, seemingly dazed and scared.

Mr Hill, from Torpoint, Cornwall, confirmed his name and said he did not have a military rank.

He revealed: “I was helping out at the border for a bit and they said if I wanted to help more I could help further in the country if I went with them.”

He is the fifth Briton to have been captured by Vladimir Putin’s troops in Ukraine within a fortnight.

Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28, were captured the previous week in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Mr Urey's mother, Linda, revealed on Friday that she had begged her son not to go to Ukraine, but that he said he "couldn't live with himself” if he did not.

She revealed that on the morning of her son’s disappearance, he messaged her to say he was "going to be going off radar" for 36 hours. She had since received a message simply saying: "Morning" and that he could not speak but would call her.

“That was weird," she said: "He always says 'Mum' and he didn't say 'Mum'... I don't know if it was him.”

It came after Scott Sibley, a former British soldier who served in Afghanistan, became the first Briton confirmed to have been killed fighting in the conflict.

Mr Sibley, 36, a father of three who served in the Royal Logistic Corps, died last weekend. His relatives were on Friday still trying to establish the circumstances of his death.

One family friend told the Telegraph that few people who knew him had been told he had gone to Ukraine, as he wanted to “keep it quiet” for security reasons.

Meanwhile, a former US marine from Tennessee, who was working in the country with a private military contracting company, was also confirmed dead.

Willy Cancel, 22, who has a seven-month-old baby, signed up to work for the company in February and crossed into Ukraine on March 12 or 13, his mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN.

Two separate two-minute videos of Mr Hill, apparently spliced and edited from a longer interview, were released on Russian state television on Friday.

The channel said: “Andrew Hill laid down his arms and surrendered to Russian servicemen in the Mykolaiv region. A group of mercenaries, in which the Briton fought, was defeated, and he was wounded.”

A relative in Cornwall, who did not want to be named, confirmed that the family had seen the video and were “incredibly concerned” for his welfare.

 

Candice Morgan, a friend, added: “Seeing that video is so upsetting for everyone who knows him. It’s traumatic. Andrew’s family are in bits. They just want him to be treated properly and for him to be able to come back home safely.”

In one of the videos, Mr Hill looked up at his captors and asked: “Am I safe?”

He was told that he was and appeared reassured, before asking: “Is there any way of being able to get back to England or anything like that?”

One of his captors, who remained off camera, told him: “I absolutely cannot say right now how long it is going to take but you can be sure that nothing endangers your life.”

Mr Hill said he had an ex-wife but that his father had died on New Year’s Eve and he did not have a relationship with his mother.

Asked if there was anyone else who cared about him, he said he had four children and a partner.

He said he was carrying a CZ firearm “for personal protection” and was in a group of seven, two of whom he did not know.

He said the information they received was “very minimal”, adding: “We don’t really get told much at all, if anything.”

He said he could not remember where he crossed the border but had stayed there helping refugees before someone from the foreign legion suggested he could help further in Ukraine. “I flew there on my own and down to the border to help by myself,” he added.

Asked how much he had been paid, he revealed: “They have not paid me nothing. They said they was meant to be paying people but no one has been paid.”

Mr Hill was asked what documentation he had and said he had been carrying his passport but did not know where it was.

He asked if he could get to a hospital but was told he would be taken care of.

He was then asked if he had a message for other Englishmen who might decide to travel to Ukraine, and replied: “They need to really think about it. This doesn’t involve us.”

On Sunday, Mr Hill posted a photograph of Mr Sibley on Facebook, writing: “Rest easy brother.”