UK MP's son filmed destroying Russian army vehicle; killed 8 Moscow troops

Son of British parliamentarian MP Helen Grant who served five years in the Britain’s commando unit of the Royal Marine Corps was seen fighting against Russia’s military forces in Ukraine as he lead a team of British and US soldiers in a mission to destroy an armoured vehicle belonging to Moscow. 

A 30-year-old veteran from Afghanistan war, Ben Grant, arrived in Ukraine in March and enrolled himself under ‘Foreign Legion,’ a foreign military unit of Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine. In the recent footages, Grant can be heard shouting “shoot it now” and “mind the back blast” as he launches anti-tank missile on a Russian BTR in a woodland in the northeast and blows it up. 

During the 15-hour operation, led by the Western volunteers special forces from a forest on the frontline, Grant and other fighters from the United States, killed at least eight Russian soldiers. British newspaper I informed that later, at least 30 Russian troops were also killed in a firefight after team of 13 US and British fighters linked up with Ukrainian forces to storm a trench.

Tory MP's son hit a Russian BTR - 80 with an RPG. Credit: Twitter/@Nikolai11449196

Grant, who was seen aiming a shoulder-held Matador anti-tank missile at the Russia’s BTR in the videos, some 100 metres away, was identified as the son of Helen Grant, UK’s Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald. As the fierce gun battle ensued between Foreign Legion soldiers and the Russian troops another British fighter was heard telling Grant: “It’s facing towards us” and to “pull back.” 

Several former British, American, Canadian, Georgian and European soldiers have travelled to Ukraine and have picked arms against the Russian armed forces after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s calls for foreign volunteers to help defend his country under Moscow’s offensive. 

Pro-democracy Belarusian dissidents who have been demonstrating against President Alexander Lukashenko's Soviet-style autocracy were also seen rehearsing military war games near the border with Poland to join "brethren nation" Ukraine's fight. "This entire battalion is people who are tired of Lukashenko," Matthew Parker, a former US Army soldier also in Poland, reportedly said. An ex- US Marine Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was also recently killed by Russia's forces and his body has still not been retrieved. 

"They [Belarusian fighters] hate Russia because of their interference and they see the Ukrainians as their brothers, and they say, 'look, if we help Ukraine, and we beat the Russians, we teach our own people that you can resist," Parker told euronews reporters. 

Grant was pictured at Lviv train station with at least seven ex-British servicemen who arrived in Kyiv. Speaking to the reporters at the Lviv station shortly after arrival, Grant had said that he made the decision to fight the Ukraine war after seeing footage of the Russian bombing of a house where a child could be heard screaming.  

“I thought, I am a father of three, and if that was my kids I know what I would do, I would go and fight,” he told Guardian’s reporter at the time. “I just want to make that clear, completely off my own back, I decided to do this. I didn’t even tell my mum, but it is what it is,” he said. 

UK’s Armed Forces Minister threatened to court martial soldiers entering Ukraine war

UK’s Armed Forces Minister James Heappey had previously warned British soldiers against stepping into Ukraine war, threatening to court martial them. He had cited the risks of escalation as it would bring British nationals in direct confrontation with Russia’s armed forces. But Grant and a 5-strong unit which includes Americans are believed to be a part of the Ukrainian counter-offensive that pushed Russia’s troops out of previously occupied Kharkiv. They are also provided with two Ukrainian translators. In April, a British ex-soldier Scott Sibley was killed during the combat while one other went missing.

"I think we must have been spotted by Russian drones beforehand and they had set up their lines… so as we went in, the mass firefight broke out where you see (in the video) what we saw,” he told British broadcaster Sky news in a statement. 

Earlier this month, Grant was also seen helping his comrade, a British fighter injured by a landmine in Kharkiv. He was seen dragging the former British grenadier guard Dean Arthur to safety after a Russian ambush in a woodland in north. The UK Tory MP’s son can be heard shouting “we’ve got to move now or we’re gonna die” in the footages. As he pulls injured soldier Arthur through the forest, the fomer Royal Marine is heard saying, “You’ve got to try and walk or we’re going to die mate. Come on Deano! Last bit, keep going! Good man - you moved fast and well there, brother.” 

"We were walking in single file as the contact happened, Deano was at the end of my team, when he went to take a knee… we were shooting, getting our heads down and shooting them. I was terrified but driven to complete my most important goal, which at the time was getting him and my team out of the danger,” he reportedly said, later. 

A Taiwanese Foreign Legion fighter. Credit: Twitter/@uasupport999

A Foreign Legion soldier from Chile. Credit: Twitter/@intermarium24

Ukrainian military has been closely guarding details of the Foreign Legion Unit, but reportedly, at least 3% of the Foreign Legion force is female. Kremlin has accused Ukraine of hiring ‘mercenaries’ but Ukraine has a legalisation process that “formally incorporates” the International Legion of Defence into Ukraine’s armed forces which does not make them “mercenaries” under the Article 47(2) of the international war convention. The foreign legionnaires are paid no more than Ukraine’s soldiers.

Image: Twitter/@OSINT88