Two British volunteer humanitarian workers have been captured by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, it has been confirmed.
Paul Urey, from Warrington, and Dylan Healy, 22, were said to have been taken by Russian forces while heading towards Dniprorudne in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast region of southeastern Ukraine on Monday.
They have not been heard from since 4am on Monday.
Presidium Network, another group doing relief work in Ukraine and which was monitoring their efforts, raised the alarm with The Mirror.
Paul, 45, and Dylan were driving to help evacuate a woman and two children when communications between them ceased.
However, suspicion was raised when communication resumed sometime later but containing uncharacteristic errors.
Paul, who has been described as a family man with children, went to Ukraine to help on the humanitarian front after previously spending eight years in Afghanistan as a Civilian Contractor.
It is understood Paul has Type-One diabetes and there are fears he may not have enough medication on him.
Dylan is said to have worked in a hotel chain before going to Ukraine. It is understood he is the driver.
Paul's mum Linda has asked for support in bringing her son home.
She said: "We know my son has been captured by the Russians while trying to help citizens in Ukraine. He was out there on his own accord.
"We want everyone’s support to bring him home. We have asked Presidium Network to help support us and who have helped verify my son has been captured.”
Linda described her son as "too caring" and "too kind", adding he usually messages and FaceTimes her several times a day.
She said her son had been in Ukraine for about a week and a half before he went missing.
She told Sky News that she "begged him" not to go. Linda said her suspicions were raised when a message to her started with "Good Morning" instead of "Good Morning Mum", which was something he always said.
When asked how she was feeling, Linda said through tears: "Like I want to die..I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know, it's horrible."
Pals of Dylan say he told them was "ok" when they had last spoken.
Sophie Goldring went to sixth-form college with Dylan said that Dylan kept in touch on Snapchat and "said that he was ok" when they last spoke.
Sophie said: "He sent me a Snapchat of him driving. He said he was ok. Apart from that haven't heard from him which has now worried me. He wanted to [go to Ukraine] to help. He wanted to do it."
Another pal who played football with Dylan said he was "just a kid from a council estate who went out there to help".
Allan Moore, 29, said he was told Dylan was trying to save a young family from south Ukraine when he was captured by Russian troops.
He added: "It doesn't surprise me he went out there [to Ukraine] but I'm shocked at the situation now. When I heard about this I was like 'that's not real'.
"He was a 22-year-old kid from a council estate who went out there to help."
Neighbours at Dylan's former home in Cambs. said he had worked odd jobs while in the area.
Dylan had recently told pals online on March 15 that he was driving to Ukraine and had arrived in Poland.
It comes after the Foreign Office confirmed that a British man has been killed in Ukraine and another missing.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News that the Foreign Office is doing all it can to support the captured men and their families.
She said: "The Foreign Office obviously has been working very closely with those in Ukraine both to make sure the identification is correct and indeed to work with local authorities and to support families here.
"As we’ve set out right from the beginning we don’t want British nationals to go and fight but there are many many ways in which so many people… can all support.”
She added: "We don't want people to go and fight but obviously the Foreign Office is doing all it can to support and identify these two people."
The Mirror has seen WhatsApp and Viber messages from the captured men.
The text conversation show a long gap between interactions before later, suspicious-looking messages begin to claim they are safe, but were notably not written in the missing men's natural style and failed to issue code words for security.
In the later Viber messages between the woman who was meant to get evacuated and 'Paul', the texts are riddled with spelling errors, whereas the WhatsApp messages from before their reported disappearance had been consistently written clearly.
Furthermore, The Mirror has also learned that the woman claims her house was then raided by Russian forces, mere hours after her most recent message from Paul's phone.
She told Dominik Bryne of Presidium Network that they forced her husband to lie on the floor and demanded to know how they knew the "British spies".
It is unclear where the two British humanitarian workers have been taken, and both men are said to have gone to Ukraine voluntarily to aid in evacuations and other humanitarian efforts.
The Mirror has contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for a comment in regards to the missing humanitarian workers.
Scott Sibley, who reportedly previously served in UK military, died on April 23, according to a GoFundMe page set up in his memory.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the veteran, known as 'Sibs' to his pals, and another Brit who is missing had been fighting alongside Ukrainians against the Russian forces.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said a British man had died in Ukraine while another was still missing, but did not provide any details on what the men had been doing in the war-torn country.
Putin claims his "special military operation" is to "de-Nazify" Ukraine and that his conflict is against NATO powers - a multilateral organisation that he sees as a direct threat to Russia.
Moscow has also hit out at the UK for saying Britain would support Ukraine’s right to hit Russian military targets on Russian soil, using UK weapons.
It comes as the UK Defence Secretary said Nato forces “outnumber and outgun” Russia.
Nato forces “outnumber and outgun” Russia, the UK Defence Secretary said today after Vladimir Putin issued his latest chilling nuclear hint.
Ben Wallace warned the crews of Britain’s nuclear weapon-armed submarines were “deep underwater, hiding, waiting, in case Britain needs to be protected”.
Russia’s President yesterday warned he would mount a “lightning-fast” retaliation if the West intervened in Ukraine, warning “we have all the tools” and “we will use them if necessary”.
But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said “I don’t think [Putin] will” use nuclear weapons.
The top Tory said Russia ’s President has committed “massive strategic blunders”, noting drily: “His so-called lightning invasion of Ukraine hasn’t gone too well.”
