They put their lives at risk to evacuate civilians from the contested areas in eastern Ukraine: Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw rescued more than 400 people when they set out on an operation in Soledar in early January. Days later, pictures of their passports appear on Telegram.
On January 3, Belgian journalist Arnaud De Decker met a young Briton in Bakhmut, Ukraine. His name is Christopher Parry, 28 years old, from Truro – a town in Cornwall. In video De Decker later released of the encounter, Parry is wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest. But he doesn’t fight for the Ukrainian army, he says. The Briton evacuates civilians from the embattled south of the city. “We receive calls from people who want their relatives to be evacuated,” explains Parry in front of the camera. Some even volunteered, he says, because they no longer dared to go out on their own.
Parry tells of a 51-year-old woman who asked him and his partner Andrew Bagshaw that morning to rescue her from the southern part of the heavily contested city. As he speaks, a grenade can be heard hitting somewhere nearby in the background. There aren’t many volunteers venturing into the southern part of the city anymore, says De Decker. “Yes, but there are still people who want to get out,” Parry replies. “So I’m ready to go get her.” Three days later, Parry and Bagshaw are reported missing in Soledar. Since this week it has been clear: they did not survive their last mission.
“It is with great sadness that we have to announce that our beloved Chrissy, along with his colleague Andrew Bagshaw, was killed while attempting a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar in eastern Ukraine,” Parry’s family said in a statement published. Ukrainian media reports that the two Britons were “trying to rescue an elderly woman from an area of intense military action when her car was hit by an artillery shell.” Soledar was heavily contested until the city was taken by the Russian army in mid-January.
“The most dangerous job right now”
Before the war, the small town had around 10,000 inhabitants, most of whom had fled long ago. But some could not or did not want to leave their homeland at first. Parry and Bagshaw wanted to help you. The two men are said to have saved more than 400 people. Journalist De Decker told the BBC that they had done “probably the most dangerous job you can do at the moment”, which was “really heroic”. According to BBC information, there are about a dozen volunteers in the region to evacuate people who can no longer flee on their own – many are only funded by donations.
A video recording of the evacuation of “Grandma Galia” in Donbass, which was widely shared on social media last November – including by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior – became known. The pictures show how the rescuers’ car was hit by a projectile during the escape and remained stranded on the side of the road. The old lady and her rescuers then have to run to safety on foot under the thunder of artillery fire. “I’ve seen a lot of similar videos”, Gerashchenko wrote about the recordings“but I watched this one several times.”
Bagshaw’s funeral in Kyiv
According to the BBC, the fact that Parry and Bagshaw did not survive the mission in Soledar was first reported by a Telegram account that is said to be connected to the Wagner mercenary group. Accordingly, Wagner fighters discovered Parry’s body in Soledar, and images of Parry’s and Bagshaw’s passports were shared. During the weeks of fighting for the small town, Wagner mercenaries spearheaded the Russian attacks. The combat troops of the Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as “Putin’s cook”, suffered heavy losses when they took over the town.
The Foreign Office in London did not comment on who and how the two men were recovered. A friend of the dead, who also drives evacuation missions to the contested areas, reported on Twitter that there will be a memorial service for Bagshaw this Sunday in a Kiev church, and the funeral ceremony for Parry will be organized by his family. “We are very proud of his selfless determination to help the elderly, children and vulnerable in Ukraine,” the statement said. “We never thought we’d have to say goodbye to him.”