According to Ukrainian police, two British nationals have gone missing in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
According to police, the men, aged 28 and 48, were doing volunteer work and were last seen on Friday heading to the town of Soledar, where fighting has been intense in recent days.
Since then, there has been no contact with them.
A Foreign Office spokesman said it was “supporting the families of two British men who have gone missing in Ukraine”.
The Bakhmut police department said they received a missing person’s report at 17:15 local time on Saturday and asked for any information that could lead them to the two men. The men had been in Kramatorsk, where there had been reports of recent strikes.
Earlier on Monday, Ukraine’s military said it was beefing up its forces in Soledar, a small town near Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region, to combat constant attacks by the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
The group’s leader has vowed to seize the area’s vast underground mines.
“The enemy again made a desperate attempt to storm the city of Soledar from different directions and threw the most professional units of the Wagnerites into battle,” Ukraine’s military said in a statement.
The British Foreign Office (FCDO) is warning against all travel to Ukraine due to current attacks on a number of different cities, as the war against Russia enters its 11th month.
According to the FCDO, there is a “real risk to life,” and British nationals who are still in Ukraine should leave immediately.