The mother of the first British man to die while fighting for Russia has said he lied to his family about where he was travelling to. Bradley Townsend, 33, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was killed in a drone strike while fighting on the front line in Lyman, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on June 10.
Secret decision to join Russian forces
The fisherman’s mum, Maureen, has said that he had no previous military experience and kept his decision to join Russian forces secret from his family. In an interview, she said that he told her that he was going to Romania, not the war in Ukraine.
‘He was going to go travelling for a year, and I was glad about that because he had two failed relationships,’ Maureen, an NHS care support worker, told the Daily Mail. ‘He wanted to do something different and he said, “I’m going to go travelling.”’
Family learns the truth
Townsend secretly packed his bags for Russia on April 1 before featuring in a video for the Russian International Volunteers Association just three days later. That was when the 33-year-old’s family, including his mum and two siblings, learned that he was fighting for the Russians. In the video, Townsend described himself as a ‘normal working-class lad from Yorkshire’.
His mum added: ‘He phoned me up and told me he was not in the country he said he was going to be in. He said he was going to Romania. ‘I believed him, because he has friends from work that he’s met. ‘But the next thing he had phoned me up and told me he is in Russia. ‘I said, “What are you doing there?” And then it all came out and I asked him, “You’re joking?” I thought he was joking with me.’
Motives and aftermath
According to his family, Townsend never showed an interest in joining the British Army and had no connections with any Russian people. In a social media post, he said that he wanted to ‘repay the favour’ to miners in the Donbas region who had donated a month’s wages to striking Yorkshire miners during the 1980s.
‘I came with the idea that I probably wouldn’t be able to go home,’ he wrote. ‘I’m not here for a suicide mission, but I understand that’s what can happen. This was my own decision, I wasn’t pushed into anything.’ Townsend, whose call sign was ‘Badger’, was reportedly fighting in Lyman when he was killed.
His family now face an uphill battle to repatriate his body due to the Kremlin refusing to co-operate with the British government. Conservative MP and former security minister Tom Tugendhat said he was ‘very sorry for him and his family’ following Townsend’s death. However, he criticised his decision to join the Russian army, adding: ‘It’s extremely misguided and, no question about it, it’s criminal because you’re engaging in an army that is committing the most barbarous war crimes that the world has seen in decades.’ Metro has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.
