While claiming to be taken captive by pro-Russian separatists in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, a British man has been seen in a video pleading for rescue from Boris Johnson.
A Russian TV host is speaking with John Harding, a man in his fifties and a native of Sunderland.
He claims in the video that he might be executed.
His imprisonment, according to the Foreign Office, is a cause for worry.
When the Ukrainian soldiers Mr. Harding was fighting alongside at the Azovstal steelworks were forced to submit, it is believed that Mr. Harding was taken in May.
At the time, the battalions were defending Mariupol, a city in the southeast.
He served in the Azov regiment, according to the video. Mr. Harding had informed his acquaintances that he was fighting with the Ukrainian National Guard.
Mr. Harding’s friends and family have confirmed to the BBC that he is the person in the video, and the Foreign Office is providing help for his family.
Since 2018, he had been engaged in combat in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
He earlier told the BBC that he had gone there to utilize his military medical training to aid in the conflict with pro-Russian rebels.
