Bradley Townsend: 'normal Yorkshire lad' becomes first Briton to die fighting for Putin in Ukraine

A self-proclaimed “Yorkshire lad” has become the first Briton to die fighting for Vladimir Putin against Ukraine.

Barnsley’s Bradley Townsend was killed in a drone strike in June, The Yorkshire Post understands, two months after arriving in Russia to fight in the invasion.

He is the first known Briton to die fighting for Russia in Putin’s war against Ukraine.

The news has broken as Prime Minister Andy Burnham has arrived in Kyiv for his first visit as Prime Minister.

Ahead of the trip, he announced that the UK would help Ukraine produce long-range Scalp missiles by sharing blueprints for its British components with Kyiv.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was aware of reports that a British national has died in Ukraine and is in contact with his family.

This described Townsend as a “warrior in a holy war” who had “sacrificed his life for the cause".

In the footage, he described himself as “a normal working class lad from Yorkshire”, but expressed concern when told that he may get “injured or worse” while volunteering for the Russian Army.

“It is worrying, I’m not here for a suicide mission but I understand that’s what can happen,” he said.

Townsend, who attended Barnsley College, revealed that he was first interested in the Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

That year, Russian forces annexed Crimea, which marked the start of the conflict in Ukraine, ahead of the full-blown invasion in 2022.

The Donbas is the eastern region of Ukraine, which borders Russia and incorporates the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.

In April, Mr Townsend said: “In 2014, when everything happened then I didn’t really know much about politics, especially geopolitics, but I heard about separatists in Donbas, and I didn’t think much of it but I thought if they want to be separate why not let them?”

This was ultimately where he was killed, with the Ukrainian Army starting to make gains against Putin along the eastern front.

Today, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said plans to provide Ukraine with blueprints for long-range Scalp missiles would add “fuel to the fire” and undermine any chance of peace.

Asked about his comments on a visit to Kyiv, the Prime Minister told reporters: “Who started the fire? That’s the question, isn’t it?”

Mr Burnham’s visit to Ukraine, his first foreign trip as Prime Minister, coincides with the 35th anniversary of the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.