‘True Hero’: Ukraine Pays Tribute to Ex-British Soldier Killed Fighting Russian Forces

Jordan Gatley, a soldier who left the British army in March and then went to fight in Ukraine, has died, his family have announced.

His father Dean wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday that they had received “the devastating news that our son, Jordan, has been shot and killed in the city of Severodonetsk, Ukraine.”

Fighting is ongoing in the city with hundreds of civilians sheltering as Russia attempts to capture more cities in the Donbas region.

Dean Gatley said his son, aged 24, went to Ukraine “after careful consideration” to help. He said he had made a “massive difference” to people’s lives, “not only soldiering, but also by training the Ukrainian forces.”

“Jordan and his team were so proud of the work they were doing and he often told me that the missions they were going on were dangerous, but necessary,” Dean Gatley wrote.

Jordan Gatley was part of the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, also known as the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. 

Mykhailo Podolyak, one of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s advisers, said Jordan Gatley was a “true hero.”

He is the second Briton to be killed in the war after the death of Scott Sibley, who was also a former member of British armed forces. He was killed in late April, aged 36. 

Two British men have additionally been sentenced to death this week – Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48 – in a show trial after they were captured while fighting for Ukraine. The court is in the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic, and charged the men alongside one Moroccan national for being mercenaries, the violent seizure of power and the undergoing of training to carry out terrorist activities, according to RIA Novosti.

The conviction has been widely condemned for violating international laws protecting prisoners of war.