Briton Paul Urey, captured in April and whose recent death was announced Friday by separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine, was a humanitarian worker, said the Ukrainian International Defense Legion, an umbrella group for foreign volunteer fighters.
“We are saddened by the announcement of the death of Mr. Urey (…) He did not fight in Ukraine. He was an employee of a humanitarian organization, ”said the press service of the Ukrainian Legion, quoted by Interfax-Ukrainian Agency.
Paul Urey and Dylan Healy captured by the Russian Army
The separatist authorities, announcing his death in custody on July 10, claimed that Paul Urey had “directed military operations, recruited and trained mercenaries for Ukrainian armed gangs”.
A UK-based non-profit organization, the Presidium Network, announced on April 29 that two aid workers it knew, Paul Urey and Dylan Healy, had been captured by the Russian military in southern Ukraine while trying to evacuate a woman and two children.
Paul Urey’s mother then indicated that her son was on a humanitarian mission, that he suffered from diabetes and needed insulin.
Two Britons and a Moroccan sentenced to death
Hailing from Manchester and Warrington in the north of England, the Presidium Network features Paul Urey as a father who did not serve in the military but spent eight years in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, while Dylan Healy worked for a hotel chain in the UK. .
Three other fighters presented by separatist authorities in the Donetsk region as mercenaries, two British and one Moroccan, were sentenced to death in June. Moscow will have to “take full responsibility” for the death of Paul Urey, London warned on Friday.
They filed an appeal in late June and early July with the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk. The UN expressed its concern after the sentence to death of these prisoners of war by pro-Russian separatists.
Source: BFM TV
