Bradley Townsend, a British national fighting for the Russian military, was reportedly killed in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region on June 10.
Townsend was reportedly killed by a first-person view (FPV) drone near the city of Lyman, Sky News reported on Monday, citing Townsend’s “comrades.”
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) confirmed that a British national died in Ukraine and said it is in contact with his family, without specifying the person’s identity, the BBC reported.
Townsend, a native of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, is believed to be the first British national to have died fighting for Russia.
The 33-year-old reportedly left the UK to join the Russian military in April 2026, initially telling his family he was going to Romania, according to The Yorkshire Post.
In April, the outlet also reported Townsend’s trip to Russia after he appeared in a video alongside two British nationals fighting for Russia, Ben Stimson and Aiden Minnis.
Stimson and Minnis reportedly received Russian citizenship for fighting in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Stimson was previously jailed for five years and four months in the UK in 2015 on terrorism charges for joining pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In the video, Townsend called himself a “normal working-class Yorkshire lad” and said he joined the Russian forces because the Soviet Union supported Yorkshire’s striking miners in the 1980s, adding that he joined to repay that favor.
The BBC said Minnis confirmed Townsend’s death in a social media update, addressing the latter using his alleged call sign “Badger.”
The outlet noted that Townsend is the second British man from Yorkshire to have died in Russia’s war in Ukraine, after James Wilton, from Huddersfield, was killed fighting for Ukrainian forces, whose death was reported by the BBC in February 2025.