A British volunteer has died fighting for Ukraine in the eastern part of the country, according to his family.
The deceased British foreign fighter has been identified as 22-year-old Samuel Newey. He had earlier joined a Kurdish militia to fight the terrorist group ISIS in Syria.
Newey's brother Daniel Newey said in a Facebook post that he died in Eastern Ukraine on Wednesday. He said he died while fighting "against Russian Imperialism".
Describing Newey as "exceptional man, a good soldier and one of the bravest people", Daniel said he is proud of his brother.
"I cannot put into words how broken I feel. I also cannot emphasise how proud I am of my little brother. He'd just turned 21 when he decided to answer the call and travel to Ukraine to push back against Russian Imperialism," said Daniel on Facebook.
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Newey was a member of the Ukrainian foreign fighters unit called Dark Angels, founded by former Parachute Regiment member Daniel Burke, reported Guardian.
As of March 2023, there were around 1,500-2,000 foreign fighters with Ukraine's International Legion, according to reports. The Legion is the military formation dedicated to foreign volunteers fighting the Russian invasion. The Ukrainians, however, have previously claimed numbers as high as 20,000. Many of the fighters who joined the war in the first year have left the country but many have continued to fight and some have lost their lives.
Vice News reported, "At the moment, the overall number of foreign fighters on behalf of Kyiv is thought to be around 2000 in-uniform, many of whom are skilled and committed soldiers to the cause. There’s an entire Belarussian regiment (the largest contingent of foreign fighters), some are dissident Russians, several are serving in the Ukrainian special forces branch, while others have taken on vital roles instructing new recruits, or being almost legendary and evasive troops."
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A lot of these foreign fighters, treated as mercenaries internationally, have are former soldiers of Western militaries and have fought in Afghanistan or the Middle East. Newey's brother Daniel too had fought in Syria against the terrorist group ISIS after joining a Kurdish militia and Newey and their father were controversially charged with terrorism in the United Kingdom for that but the case was eventually dropped.
Neewy is at least the fifth British fighter to be killed in Ukraine. Previously, Simon Lingard and Jordan Gatley were killed fighting Russians in Sievierodonetsk; Scott Sibley died in Mykolaiv; and Craig Mackintosh was killed near Kharkiv, reports Guardiam, which adds that a fifth Briton, aid worker Paul Urey, was killed while being detained by Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine.
So far, several persons from a number of countries, such as the United States, France, and Australia, have died fighting in the Ukraine War. These foreigners join the Ukrainian units of militias on their own and their governments are not responsible for them.
