Chilling words of British volunteer filmed days before he disappeared in Ukraine

Footage has emerged of a British volunteer describing his dangerous missions collecting families from warzones on the Ukrainian front line just days before he went missing. 

Christopher Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 48, have both dropped out of contact. 

In the video, shared today on Twitter, Parry described his role as an evacuation driver. 

He receives requests from family members who ask him to go and collect their relatives, often from the eastern side of Bakhmut.

Discussing the conditions in that part of the city, Parry said: ‘It’s a toss-up. You can either go on foot, which is what some volunteers do, but that means you’re spending a lot more time there. And I feel more vulnerable because you are walking around just literally completely naked.

‘By car you are more of a target, but you can fly to a destination in two minutes. Hopefully just doing it quick enough so that the drones don’t spot you, then you can just park it behind a building and hide. A lot of volunteers won’t go [to eastern Bakhmut] anymore but there are people there who want to get out, so I’m willing to go.’

Parry added: ‘There was a lady who was 51 years old who had requested to leave because things were getting a bit too hot over there. 

‘We arrived. Lots of Ukrainian missiles actually flying overhead. You can hear them whistling. 

‘And a lot of small arms firing, and soldiers kind of hiding behind bus stops as we whizz past, looking at us, thinking we are a bit crazy.’ 

The tweet that contains the video, posted by journalist Arnaud De Decker, is captioned: ‘Christopher Parry (28) and Andrew Bagshaw (48) are missing in Soledar. They are volunteers from the UK and New Zealand who evacuate civilians from the front lines. They went missing during an evacuation on Jan. 6. I spoke to them three days earlier in Bakhmut.’ 

De Decker later posted: ‘Over the [past] months, Chris and Andrew saved dozens of lives, at the risk of their own. They are heroes. I hope for their safe return.’

Parry’s parents have told of their heartache following his disappearance in the centre of the battle zone. 

Chris’s mother, Christine, told MailOnline: ‘It’s all very raw at the moment. We are just trying to inform family members about what is going on.’

His father, Robin, said: ‘We are all very proud of Chris and the work he has been doing.’   

Fears are growing for the two missing volunteers after contact with them was lost three days ago.

Parry and Bagshaw were working to evacuate civilians in some of the most war-torn areas near Bakhmut and Kramatorsk, towns in the eastern region of Donetsk where fierce fighting between Ukraine’s armed forces and Russian troops has raged for weeks.

Using a Mercedes Sprinter van and worn-out cars, the pair were helping to take supplies to the frontlines and evacuate people to safety who would have otherwise been killed amid the bitter conflict. 

The volunteers left Kramatorsk to drive to the nearby town of Soledar on Friday morning, Ukrainian police said, but never made it to their destination and all contact with the duo has been lost.

The National Police of Ukraine wrote in a social media post: ‘On January 7, around 5:15pm, the duty unit of the Bakhmut district police department received a report of the disappearance of two volunteers – citizens of Great Britain, aged 28 and 48. 

‘It is known that the day before, January 6, at eight o’clock in the morning, Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry left Kramatorsk for Soledar, but contact with them was lost.’

Parry, who was born in Cornwall but later moved to Cheltenham, was a running coach before he bought a one-way ticket to Ukraine in March.

He felt compelled to help Ukraine defend its land against Russia and intended to sign up for Ukraine’s legion of foreign fighters, but said he was told his lack of combat experience would only make him a ‘hindrance’ and instead channelled his efforts into evacuations.

Speaking to Sky News in December, Parry told of the horrific scenes he witnessed firsthand in Bakhmut and the stress of operating under the constant threat of severe injury or death.

‘I went to a military command unit and spoke to a number of soldiers who described Bakhmut as the ”worst place they had ever been”. They were saying ”this isn’t war, this is hell”. 

‘Missiles were landing on the building next door, the roof was shaking. I asked the soldiers, how feasible is it to get to the location of the next evacuee, and they said it was 50/50 you were going to get shot at by a tank.

‘I think people trying to evacuate now are either being shot dead or being forced to become Russian for the rest of their lives.

‘That is why I was willing to risk it, because I know that these people will be executed out on the street or shipped off.’

Bagshaw meanwhile was born in the UK but lived in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

His parents, Philip and Susan Bagshaw, are prominent figures in Christchurch where they founded the Canterbury Charity Hospital and made significant contributions to youth mental health services.

Their son bought a one-way ticket to Ukraine in March and was operating in coordination with the New Zealand-based NGO Kiwi Aid and Refugee Evacuation (KARE). 

Philip and Sue described their son as an ‘intelligent, independently minded person,’, while KARE director Tenby Powell told New Zealand outlet RNZ that the family are ‘very upset’ at his disappearance.

‘We haven’t given up hope, you know there’s a number of people in Ukraine who are actively searching for him, including members of the Ukraine armed forces who have been very helpful at trying to identify and locate Andrew.’

Speaking at the weekend, Powell said Bagshaw had been missing for two days.

‘While in the scheme that might not sound very much under normal circumstances, given where he is, and where he’s been operating, it’s a long time,’ he said.

News of the volunteers’ disappearance comes as Ukraine said fighting around Bakhmut and Soledar had intensified and announced it was sending additional units to repel constant attacks there by the infamous Russian mercenary group Wagner.

Kyiv sent reinforcements to Soledar this weekend, Ukrainian officials said.

‘The enemy again made a desperate attempt to storm the city of Soledar from different directions and threw the most professional units of the Wagnerites into battle,’ Ukraine’s military said in a statement.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. He said on Saturday its significance lay in the network of mines there.

‘It not only (has the ability to hold) a big group of people at a depth of 80-100 metres, but tanks and infantry fighting vehicles can also move about,’ Prigozhin claimed, though military analysts say the strategic military benefit for Moscow would be limited. 

A U.S. official claimed Prigozhin, a powerful ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is eyeing the salt and gypsum from the mines.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in nightly video remarks on Sunday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction after months of attacks.

‘Our soldiers are repelling constant Russian attempts to advance,’ he said. In Soledar ‘things are very difficult’.

In an evacuee centre in nearby Kramatorsk, Olha, 60, said she had fled Soledar after moving from apartment to apartment as each was destroyed in tank battles.

‘All of last week we couldn’t come outside. Everyone was running around, soldiers with automatic weapons, screaming,’ said Olha, who gave only her first name.

‘There isn’t one house left intact,’ she said. ‘Apartments were burning, breaking in half.’

‘There are brutal and bloody battles there – 106 shellings in one day,’ Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military in the east, said on Ukrainian television.