Two British men went to Soledar. Neither came back.

ImageAn undated handout photo of Andrew Bagshaw. Credit...Bryce Wilson, via Reuters

ImageChris Parry, one of the two British men killed in Ukraine.Credit...Chris Parry, via Instagram, via Reuters

Two British citizens, Andrew Bagshaw and Chris Parry, left the town of Kramatorsk at 8 a.m. morning on January 6 and headed east towards the front lines of Ukraine's war with Russia. police said.

Their mission, according to an aid worker familiar with the case, was to evacuate an elderly woman in Soledar, a small town where Russian forces and Ukrainians were fighting a vicious fight.

They never returned.

Questions about their fate persisted until t on Tuesday, when Mr Parry's family confirmed in a statement issued by the UK Foreign Office that 'our beloved Chrissy' and Mr Bagshaw had been killed 'while attempting a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar'.

"His selfless determination in helping the old, young and disadvantaged there has made us and his large family extremely proud," the statement read.< /p>

The men's vehicle was reportedly hit by shell artillery, although investigations are ongoing rs, Mr Bagshaw's parents said at a news conference. They had feared such an outcome, they said, but were "very, very proud" of his work.

Mr. Bagshaw, 47, and Mr Parry, 28, were among an ad hoc cohort of foreigners with little or no combat experience who helped evacuate civilians from the front lines, acquaintances said. Several of Mr Parry's and Mr Bagshaw's evacuations have been documented by journalists, including Arnaud De Decker, who shared footage of Mr Parry in Bakhmut days before he disappeared.

Their deaths were a stark reminder of the danger faced by those whose work has become a lifeline in the Donbass, where many Ukrainians are trapped in some of the worst war zones Europe has known since World War II.

On January 6, the two men "went to a really dangerous address", said Grzegorz Rybak, another foreign volunteer who worked with both men and lived with Mr. Bagshaw in Kramatorsk for two weeks. "And they didn't come back."

PMC Wagner, a notorious mercenary group fighting on behalf of Russia, claimed a week after their disappearance that they had found the one of the men. body. The group posted photos of what appeared to be their passports on Telegram, along with a certificate identifying Mr Parry as a volunteer with the Pavlo Vyshniakov Foundation, a Kyiv-based charity that sends resources including food and medical supplies, to civilians, hospitals and the military. groups. The foundation declined to comment.

Wagner's claim could not be verified at the time, and Russian state media has since claimed, without evidence, that the men were mercenaries.