The mother of the first British man to die fighting for Russia has revealed that her son told her he was going to Romania, not the front lines in Ukraine.
Yorkshireman Bradley Townsend, 33, died in combat after leaving his hometown of Barnsley to enlist in Putin‘s war.
The keen fisherman – with no previous military experience – perished on the front line whilst fighting in Lyman, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on June 10.
He was the victim of a drone strike, and is the first known British fighter to have died fighting for Russia since Putin’s forces first invaded Ukraine in 2014.
Today, his mother Maureen, an NHS care support worker, told the Daily Mail that her son did not tell her he was going to fight for Russia, instead telling her that he was visiting Romania.
She added that Russia is refusing to co-operate with the British government to allow his body to be repatriated back to the UK, deepening their suffering.
Bradley – whose call sign was ‘Badger’ – secretly packed his bags for Russia on April 1.
It was only after he featured in a video on April 4 for the Russian International Volunteers Association that his family, made up of Maureen and two of Bradley’s siblings, learned he had joined the Russian ranks.
Bradley Townsend, 33, from Barnsley, travelled to Russia in April of this year to join Putin’s army
Townsend is the first known British fighter to have died fighting for Russia since Putin’s forces first invaded Ukraine in 2014
In the video Bradley described himself as a ‘normal working-class lad from Yorkshire’.
His mother said: ‘He was going to go travelling for a year, and I was glad about that because he had two failed relationships. That was sad, they were lovely girls, but it just didn’t work out, and he wanted to do something different and he said “I’m going to go travelling”.’
He had claimed he was visiting Romania and posted pictures of his travels.
‘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.
‘And 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. The pictures that he posted. My son put them into Google to check where he was because he didn’t think it looked like Romania.’
Bradley trained as a joiner after leaving school and had no interest in enlisting as a squaddie in the British Army.
His family has no Russian connections whatsoever.
In a social media post, Townsend said his reason for joining was to ‘repay the favour’ to miners in Donbas who had donated a month’s wages to striking Yorkshire miners in the 1980s.
Townsend added: ‘I came with the idea that I probably wouldn’t be able to go home. I’d definitely get persecuted if I went back.
‘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 described himself as ‘a normal working-class lad from Yorkshire’ who wanted to support Russian separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region
Now, his family is struggling to repatriate his body as the Kremlin is refusing to co-operate with the British Government.
His grief-stricken family is desperate for answers and want to lay Bradley to rest in the UK.
The heartbroken mother-of-three said she is too in the dark, because of lack of communication with the Russian authorities, to comment further: ‘Me and the rest of Bradley’s family continue to grieve for him.’
Other Brits serving in the Russian Armed Forces took to social media to pay tribute, with one saying Townsend ‘wanted to help the people of Russia defeat the Nazis’.
Aiden Minnis added in a post on Facebook: ‘I had the pleasure of spending some time with Bradley before he decided to sign his contract. We discussed the danger he would be facing, but he insisted that his mind was made up…Ultimately, he sacrificed his life for our cause.
‘His service was brief but he blazed the brightest star. Rest in Paradise brother. “To die a warrior in a Holy War is to live forever.”‘
Ben Stimson, another Brit who went to fight for Russia, also paid tribute on Telegram, writing: ‘Bradley had been a follower of my YouTube and Telegram channels for over 2 years. I had advised him to stay in the UK and support anti-NATO protests at home. He contacted me 3 months ago to say he was coming to Russia to join the army.
‘I told him just to come for a holiday. He arrived at the same time as another volunteer was on his holiday. We both told him the realities of the Special Military Operation and the dangers. I later said to Bradley he could still use his return ticket. Brad was adamant he wanted to go and fight.’
Stimson, who was jailed in the UK in 2017 after joining a Russian-backed militia in eastern Ukraine, wrote online that Townsend’s flat cap had been brought back to the UK by a friend and would be left on Ilkley Moor, a rural moorland 40 miles from where he grew up.
One man who knew Townsend told LBC the fisherman struggled with his mental health and addiction in the past.
Another said the 33-year-old was a ‘normal guy’ who had been ‘indoctrinated’ by people who ‘saw his vulnerability as an opportunity to recruit him into their twisted cause’.
Conservative MP for Tonbridge and former security minister Tom Tugendhat said he was ‘very sorry for him and his family’ but that joining the Russian armed forces was ‘unbelievably stupid’.
He added: ‘It’s extremely misguided and, you know, 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.’
The Foreign Office earlier told the Daily Mail: ‘We are aware of reports that a British national has died in Ukraine and are in contact with his family.’
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