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                    "A man from South Yorkshire is believed to be the first British citizen to die fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine.Bradley Townsend, a 33-year-old fisher from Barnsley, left Britain in April to join up with Russian separatists in eastern Donbas to aid in their invasion of Ukraine, despite having no previous combat experience or familiar ties to eastern Europe. Alongside 49-year-old Ben Stimson and 39-year-old Aiden Minnis, Townsend was granted Russian citizenship for joining the country\u2019s military campaign.He is believed to have been killed by a remote-controlled first-person-view drone near Lyman, a city in Donetsk, on 10 June. He appeared in videos posted to social media by pro-Russian accounts, including one seemingly owned by Stimson, who was jailed in the UK in 2015 prior to Russia\u2019s full scale invasion for travelling to join pro-Russian troops to fight in the region.Although Townsend\u2019s death was only widely reported on Monday, unconfirmed reports that he had been killed began circulating in June. One pro-Russian report, seen by LBC, described Townsend as a \u201cwarrior in a holy war\u201d who had \u201csacrificed his life for the cause\u201d.Back in his native Yorkshire, his death was met with sadness and frustration. One former friend posted that Townsend, who was understood to have had struggled with mental health and addiction, was a \u201cnormal guy\u201d who had been \u201cindoctrinated\u201d by people who \u201csaw his vulnerability as an opportunity to recruit him into their twisted cause\u201d, while another said that he had been \u201cbrainwashed\u201d by his fellow British defectors.In videos taken after he had joined up with Russian forces, Townsend could be seen describing himself as a \u201cnormal working-class lad from Yorkshire\u201d and laughing with Stimson and Minnis as the trio drank and played cards. He had also posted that the Donbas miners had donated to miners in Yorkshire during strikes in the 1980s, before he was born, and he intended to \u201crepay that favour\u201d.In a post after his death, Minnis described Townsend as \u201cour beloved comrade-in-arms\u201d who went \u201cinto the storm and fell on the battlefield\u201d while comparing Ukrainians to Nazis, a common analogy used in Russian propaganda.In the same post, Minnis said that Townsend \u201csacrificed his life for our cause. His service was brief but he blazed the brightest star\u201d.Townsend, who reportedly told his family he was travelling to Romania when he left Britain in April, also defended his decision to go to Russia on social media, while acknowledging he would be \u201cpersecuted\u201d if he ever went home.In a post he wrote: \u201cI came with the idea that I probably wouldn\u2019t be able to go home. I\u2019d definitely get persecuted if I went back. I\u2019m not here for a suicide mission, but I understand that\u2019s what can happen. This was my own decision, I wasn\u2019t pushed into anything.\u201dskip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTom Tugendhat, the former Conservative MP and security minister who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, expressed his sympathies to Townsend\u2019s family but described his actions as \u201cunbelievably stupid\u201d and \u201cextremely misguided\u201d, adding: \u201cNo question about it, it\u2019s criminal because you\u2019re engaging in an army that is committing the most barbarous war crimes that the world has seen in decades.\u201dThe Foreign Office is supporting Townsend\u2019s family."
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