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Russian mercenary fighters have claimed they have found the body of one of the two British aid volunteers that went missing in Ukraine. The head of the Wagner Group said his forces had found a body but did not state the volunteers names. Documents belonging to both men were found on the person of the dead man. Photos of their passports and the personal possessions of the other volunteers were also posted online. The Ask Wagner hotline allegedly received a request to find the two missing volunteers on January 8 and on Wednesday the documents were discovered, according to outlet ELINT News. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said they are “supporting the families of two British men who have gone missing in Ukraine”.
Christopher Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 48, were last seen on Friday as they were heading to Soledar, a city that was then partially captured by the Wagner Group over the weekend and into this week.
The area in eastern Ukraine, in Donetsk, has been the centre of some of the most vicious fighting on the frontline since the summer.
But in recent weeks, the attacks have intensified as Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary group leader, sought to make his first significant territorial gain around Bakhmut.
The Ukrainian police on Monday said they were looking for the two missing volunteers and that an investigation had been launched.
The small city of Soledar has become the target for Prigozhin and his mercenary fighters as they try to show the Kremlin that they are the only outfit capable of achieving territorial gains on the frontline.
It appears to hold little strategic value short of making an easier advance on the cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk further north, and both have been heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces as the fighting in Soledar and Bakhmut has slowly dragged on.
And as Prigozhin claimed his fighters on Wednesday had taken full control of the city, the Russian defence ministry appeared to contradict the controversial oligarch’s claims about their sole takeover.
Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in the military’s daily update that the Russian Airborne Forces had “carried out strikes on enemy strongholds”.
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