Memorial Service Held in Kyiv for British Aid Worker Killed by Shelling

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A memorial service was held in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, January 29, for aid worker Andrew Bagshaw, a dual citizen of New Zealand and the United Kingdom who, along with British citizen Chris Parry, was killed in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on January 6.

Around 50 people attended the service, according to Ukrainian public media.

This footage, from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), shows people paying their respects inside the church. Outside, aid volunteer Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke, one of the organizers of the service, says Bagshaw arrived from New Zealand in March and was dedicated to humanitarian work, according to a translation provided by RFE/RL. Another volunteer, Mykola Mohilevsky, lauds Bagshaw as a “patriotic foreigner”, while Yaroslava Pasichko, from the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, expresses thanks to Bagshaw and other volunteers, describing them as “quiet knights” that are saving Ukrainian lives, RFE/RL reported.

Bagshaw, 48, and Parry, 28, had been volunteering near the frontline in east Ukraine for several months, carrying out evacuations and delivering humanitarian aid in high-risk areas.

Bagshaw’s family said he and Parry were trying to evacuate an elderly woman near the city of Soledar when a shell struck their vehicle, Sky News reported.

On January 11, after the two men were reported missing, the Russian mercenary group PMC Wagner, which was fighting Ukrainian forces in the Soledar-Bakhmut area, said it had found a body belonging to one of the workers. The group also released images of passports belonging to both Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry that Wagner said were found on the body.

On January 24, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) confirmed that both men were killed in eastern Ukraine and were last seen heading towards Soledar on January 6.

In a statement issued through the FCO on Tuesday, Parry’s family said the 28-year-old was “attempting a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar” with Bagshaw when he died. Credit: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via Storyful