Fighting for the enemy

Convicted terrorist of Oldham is in Donetsk with militia brigade | From National Front supporter and drug addict to 'Z Patriot' thug

- MATT ROPER

 

IN military fatigues with a Russian flag emblazoned above a pocket, Ben Stimson brags in a strong Lancashire accent: "Yes, yes, I'm back in Russia, I'm back in uniform." 

He then waves around an unexploded grenade shell used by Ukraine and jokes: "We've got some British taxpayers' returns."

In another video posted at the weekend, Stimson makes it clear who he is fighting for - Russia. He says: "Every man takes his choice... a lot of us, the foreign volunteers, have chosen to come over to this side, to the Russian side."

Stimson's "best British friend in the Russian army" is Aiden Minnis, a former National Front member and convicted thug from Chippenham, Wilts, who told the Mirror he is now a "sapper in the Russian army".

The two men are the first Brits known to be fighting for Russia.

Former British Army commander Colonel Richard Kemp said: "These two are an absolute disgrace and are traitors who upon their return to the UK should be arrested and jailed."

Yesterday Stimson, 48, posted a video from the front line showing soldiers trudging through a muddy field past two dead bodies, walking past land mines and digging up a hand grenade.

Like the British jihadis who joined ISIS in Syria, these men face jail if or when they return.

Stimson is in the Pyatnashka brigade, an international militia that fights with Russia against Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.