By Lucy Caulkett-
Two British volunteers providing humanitarian assistance in Ukraine have been captured by the Russian military, an aid organisation has said.
News of their capture is on top of a separate two captures of British soldiers, in which one has died and the other still in capture.
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The non-profit Presidium Network said the men were detained at a checkpoint near the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Monday.
Paul Urey, from Warrington, and Dylan Healy, 22, are reported to have been taken by Russian forces while heading towards Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast region of southeastern Ukraine on Monday.
Nobody has heard from either of them since 4am on Monday.
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Presidium Network, another group doing relief work in Ukraine and which was monitoring their efforts, raised the alarm with The Mirror.
Paul, 45, and Dylan were driving to help evacuate a woman and two children when communications between them cease
One Briton had been killed in Ukraine and another was missing.
The Uk Foreign Office confirmed, that both were volunteers who had gone to fight in the country.
The Briton who died is understood to be Scott Sibley, a former British soldier who had served overseas. Ex-colleagues paid tribute on a Facebook page run by veterans of the commandos logistics support squadron, where he was described as a man who had “showed commando spirit until the end”.
In a statement the Foreign Office said: “We can confirm that a British national has been killed in Ukraine and we are supporting their family.” On the missing person, the spokesperson said: “We are aware of a British national who is missing in Ukraine and are supporting their family. We are urgently seeking further information.”
The Facebook page where tributes were paid to Sibley posted what is understood to be a photo of him while serving in the military in his younger days. He is seen in uniform, standing at what appears to be Bagram airfield in Afghanistan.
Separately, tributes were also paid to him on a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for his family by people who said that they had known him through PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), the hit online multiplayer game.
“I know only a couple of us got to meet Sibs outside our community and many had arranged to meet him or couldn’t due to long distance, however each of us that had the pleasure of knowing Sibs were affected by his contagious laugh and ability to cheer us up! (Or wind us up haha),” wrote the page’s organiser, Kate Barker.T
The two aid workers who were reportedly captured are believed to have been working independently, but were in touch with the Presidium Network.
The two men were reportedly trying to rescue a family from a village south of Zaporizhzhia at the time of their capture.
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 Britons without combat experience are thought to have also travelled to Ukraine.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had said on February 26 said she would “absolutely” support UK nationals who chose to fight for Ukraine.
Presidium Network’s founder, Dominic Byrne, told the BBC it had taken the men six hours of negotiation to get through the last Ukrainian checkpoint and into Russian territory, where they were detained.
Mr Byrne said he was making an appeal on behalf of the captured men “to get the support we need from the UK government and from the international community, as well as on the ground”.
He said he also wanted “to get clarification about how they are and how safe they are” and to know whether they were being “treated properly”.
The two men had been trying to evacuate a family, who were later interrogated by Russian forces, and asked about the ‘British spies.’ The CEO said the family later escaped to Poland.
News of the capture of the charity workers comes a day after it was confirmed that a British father had been killed in Ukraine, and a second Briton remains missing, after the pair apparently joined local forces fighting against Russia’s invasion.
Scott Sibley,(pictured) a 36-year-old veteran of the British armed forces who served in the Commando Logistic Support Squadron in Afghanistan, has been named as the first UK casualty in Ukraine
Two other British men, Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were captured earlier this month while fighting in the south-eastern city of Mariupol and shown on Russian state TV with apparent facial bruising.
Rylan is said to have worked in a hotel chain before going to Ukraine. It is understood he is the driver.
Paul’s mum has asked for support in bringing her son home.
She said: “We know my son has been captured by the Russians while trying to help citizens in Ukraine. He was out there on his own accord.
“We want everyone’s support to bring him home. We have asked Presidium Network to help support us and who have helped verify my son has been captured.”
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News that the Foreign Office is doing all it can to support the captured men and their families.
She said: “The Foreign Office obviously has been working very closely with those in Ukraine both to make sure the identification is correct and indeed to work with local authorities and to support families here.
“As we’ve set out right from the beginning we don’t want British nationals to go and fight but there are many many ways in which so many people… can all support.”
She added: “We don’t want people to go and fight but obviously the Foreign Office is doing all it can to support and identify these two people.”
Kyiv said Friday that plans were in place to evacuate civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where Ukrainian forces and civilians are encircled by Russian troops.
‘An operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal factory is planned for today,’ the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week that the United Nations was doing everything possible to ensure the evacuation of civilians from the ‘apocalypse’ in Mariupol. Only 2 weeks ago, another British worker was captured by the Ukranian army.
Aiden Aslin, 28, who goes by the name “Johnny”, said his unit had tried its best to defend Mariupol but “had no choice but to surrender to Russian forces”.
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