The Guardian - UK (2022-04-30)

Saturday 30 April 2022 The Guardian •••

15

Ben Quinn

Peter Beaumont

Jamie Grierson

Two British aid workers who have

reportedly been captured by Russian

forces in Ukraine have been named.

Presidium Network , a UK-based

NGO that says it carries out evacua-

tions of families and individuals from

war zones, identifi ed Paul Urey and

Dylan Healy as the captured men.

The Foreign Offi ce (FCDO) said ear-

lier it was seeking further information

about claims the two men, who went

to Ukraine to provide humanitarian

aid, had been captured.

A statement from Urey’s mother,

Linda, released by Presidium said:

“My family and I are extremely wor-

ried. We know my son Paul and his

friend who was a humanitarian aid

volunteer in Ukraine has been cap-

tured by the Russians.

“He was out there on his own

accord. We want everyone’s support

to bring my son home and pray he is

Jamie Grierson and agency

About 8,000 British army troops are

to take part in exercises across eastern

Europe to combat Russian aggression

in one of the largest deployments

since the cold war.

Dozens of tanks will be deployed

to countries ranging from Finland to

North Macedonia this summer, and

joining them will be tens of thou-

sands of troops from Nato and the

Joint Expeditionary Force alliance,

which includes Finland and Sweden.

The Ministry of Defence said the

action had been long planned and

subsequently enhanced in response

to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Commander Field Army Lt Gen

Ralph Wooddisse said: “ The scale of

the deployment, coupled with the

professionalism, training and agil-

ity of the British army, will deter

safe. Paul is also type 1 diabetic and

needs his insulin. We have asked the

Presidium Network to help us and

also the FCDO to help as well. We pray

for him and hope he is safe.”

Presidium said it had been intend-

ing to work with the men, who were

missing south of Zaporizhzhia , and

provided details of messages in which

they had reported their location.

“The Foreign Offi ce is doing all it

can to support and identify these two

people,” the trade minister, Anne-

Marie Trevelyan , told Sky News.

The Institute for the Study of War

thinktank warned this week that

Russian forces were stepping up oper-

atio ns to abduct Ukrainian citizens

for use in prisoner exchanges.

On Thursday, the Foreign Offi ce

confi rmed that a British citizen had

been killed in Ukraine and a second

was missing, amid reports that both

were volunteers who had gone to

fi ght in the country.

The Briton who died was under-

stood to be Scott Sibley , a former

soldier who had served overseas.

Sibley is believed to be the fi rst Brit-

ish fi ghter known to have been killed

in combat in Ukraine.

A small number of serving British

personnel are understood to have

gone absent without leave to join

the resistance against the Russian

invasion, while veterans and Brit-

ons without combat experience are

thought to have also travelled to

Ukraine.

Britons

Mother’s plea

for captured

aid worker

Military

8,000 British

troops to go

to Nato’s east

aggression at a scale not seen in

Europe this century.”

The defence secretary, Ben Wal-

lace, called the move “a show of

solidarity and strength in one of the

largest shared deployments since the

cold war”.

Troops from the Queen’s Royal

Hussars have been deployed and will

be embedded in an armoured brigade

in Finland, which shares an 830-mile

land border with Russia. Exercises

alongside American troops are also

taking place in Poland.

The announcement that Britain

will conduct large-scale exercises in

Europe comes after Vladimir Putin

raised the prospect of attacks on

western targets, warning of a “light-

ning-fast” retaliation.

The operation, called Exercise

Hedgehog, will start in May and

involve British troops on the Estonia-

Latvia border alongside 18,000 Nato

troops, including French and Danish

forces, who are part of the British-

led Nato enhanced forward presence.

The UK this week increased the

pressure on international allies to

bolster support for Ukraine. The Brit-

ish foreign secretary, Liz Truss called

for a “doubling down” in a speech on

Wednesday night, including further

supplies of heavy weapons, and for

allies to push for Russian forces to

entirely leave Ukraine’s territory.

Moscow has largely taken con-
trol of the south-eastern port city of
Mariupol, which has been razed to
rubble by Russian bombs. An esti-
mated 2,000 Ukrainian troops and
up to 1,000 civilians are still holed up
in the besieged Azovstal steel plant
on the outskirts of the city.
If confi rmed, the art seizure would
signify the fi rst known instance of
mass cultural looting by Russian
forces since the start of the war.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, has previously accused
Russian troops of engaging in mass

looting after video and audio record-

ings appeared to show Russian forces

sending parcels containing stolen

goods back to Russia. The Guardian

has also collected evidence that sug-

gests looting by Russian forces has

been a systematic part of Russian mil-

itary behaviour in Ukraine.

Ukraine has rushed to preserve its

art objects and monuments since the

outbreak of the war over two months

ago, as many feared Moscow would

specifi cally target the country’s cul-

tural heritage, a war crime under

international law.

Ukrainian fears for its cultural

assets have been exacerbated by a

series of public speeches made by the

Russian president, Vladimir Putin,

in which he has rejected Ukraine’s

independent identity, language and

traditions.

A number of leading museums

across the country have since moved

their art to undisclosed locations.

The global arts organisation

Getty previously warned that mil-

lions of artworks and monuments in

Ukraine were at risk of being looted

or destroyed by bombs.

In a March statement, Getty said:

“The material cultural heritage of

the world is our common heritage,

the identity and inspiration for all

humanity. Cultural heritage has the

power to unite us and is critical for

achieving peace.

“It is also too often the target of

war, another way to destroy and over-

take a society by erasing its memory.”

A number of Ukrainian cultural

sights have already been destroyed

by Russian shelling, including the

Ivankiv museum, which housed

Ukrainian folk art, while Unesco

estimates that more than 50 Ukrain-

ian historic buildings have suff ered

extensive damage since the start of

Russia’s invasion.

The Guardian has contacted the

Russian military for comment.

▲ Paul Urey, left, and Dylan Healy were working for the UK-based NGO

Presidium Network when they were detained by Russian forces in Ukraine

 Mariupol’s

Museum of

Local Lore,

destroyed by

shelling

 A Torah is one

of the artefacts

missing

▼ Bottom left

and middle,

paintings

reportedly

stolen. Below

right, damage

to the museum

dedicated to

the painter and

Mariupol native

Arkhip Kuindzhi

PHOTOGRAPHS:

MARIUPOL CITY

COUNCIL; AP

▲ The Arkhip Kuindzhi art museum in Mariupol PHOTOGRAPH: KONSTANTIN AKINSHA