What we’re missing in the tragedy of Ukrainian war volunteers Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry

These two people died way too young. But the work they did was extraordinary, writes Bel Trew

There has been some criticism of the two British citizens, who had never dealt with conflict beforehand (Reuters)

Even among the most hardened and veteran of war correspondents – the work done by the people who evacuate civilians from the frontline – is considered so incredibly dangerous it verges on mad.

On Sunday, friends and fellow volunteers gathered at Kyiv’s St Sophia’s Cathedral to bid goodbye to British volunteers Andrew Bagshaw, 47, and Christopher Parry, 28, who were killed trying to rescue elderly residents from Soledar.

It is an east Ukrainian town in the claws of the fiercest frontline of the entire war. We embedded with medics manning field hospitals in this area. They were working 24 hours a day treating the wounded who were coming in thick and fast under this constant wall of Russian shelling. When the pair went missing, their friends sent me the route they had planned to take in order to answer a call for help. Their destination was a north eastern corner of the salt-mining town and so close to Russian positions that at some point during that day when Moscow’s men made a push forward, they were swallowed up in the moving frontline. The family later informed the world that they had indeed been killed in the shelling.