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Brits narrowly avoid kamikaze drone in ‘hell’ of Ukraine frontline | Metro News
Brits narrowly avoid Russian kamikaze drone in ‘hell’ of Ukraine frontline
Josh LaytonMonday 6 Mar 2023 1:08 pm
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[IMG alt="Caption: Exclusive: Brits narrowly avoid kamikaze drone in ?hell? of Ukraine frontline
James Dee
James Dee has returned for a second deployment with Ukrainian forces and is currently on the frontline in the eastern Donbas region (Picture: James Dee)
Two British men serving with Ukrainian forces have narrowly avoided being hit by a Russian kamikaze drone after returning to trench warfare conditions on the frontline.
James Dee and James Chadwick, who appeared in a BBC documentary, were seconds away from being hit by the battlefield unmanned aerial vehicle strapped with home-made explosive.
Dee, 30, told Metro.co.uk last night that it was a ‘whole different war’ since he returned to the conflict for a second time on February 1, with many of his friends being killed or wounded.
He described how he and his comrades are dug in and withstanding freezing temperatures and direct fire as they face a Russian mountain brigade occupying higher ground.
Top Storiesby Metro00:3000:36Bernd Leno makes Arsenal title prediction and denies'toxic feelings'
While in the UK at the start of the year, Dee, from Middlesbrough, antiestéticatured in the Our World episode about Ukraine’s volunteer foreign fighters.
The former welder, who had no military experience before joining the fight, has since returned to an even more deadly and exhausting frontline in the eastern Donbas region along with fellow UK citizen James Chadwick.
‘Since coming back it’s been a whole different war,’ he said. ‘We’ve had minus 17 temperatures some nights, you can’t feel your feet or hands.
‘When I was first here we had concealment from the tree leaves, now it’s not there or the trees have been blown up where tank rounds have hit them.
‘It’s basically how anyone would imagine hell to look like.’
James Dee has taken up arms as a machine gunner with a Ukrainian unit in the eastern Donbas region (Picture: James Dee)
The volunteers are in the Donetsk oblast as Russian forces attempt to seize the province’s capital Bakhmut in a bloody assault that has led to the battleground being dubbed ‘the meat grinder’.
Dee is a machine gunner engaged in intense combat amid trench warfare conditions that have evoked comparisons with the First World War.
Describing the near-miss, he said: ‘We had just come back from the trenches when I heard a noise, I knew straight away that it was a drone.
British fighter James Dee records life on Ukraine's frozen frontline
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‘When I looked up there was a small suicide drone hovering.
‘I had never seen one before but I knew straight away what it was and I shouted “drone!” to let everyone know.
‘It turned towards me and James so I shouted, “it’s a kamikaze!”.
‘All we could do was run as it came towards us. It had home-made C-4 strapped to it and it just nose-dived straight into the ground. If we had set off walking like 10 seconds sooner we would have been blown up.
‘We both felt our legs stinging for about a day after, I think where the rocks and dirt had hit the back of our legs from the blast.’
James Dee has described coming under Russian fire while dug in with Ukrainian forces in the east of the country (Picture: BBC/Our World)
The volunteer gives the thumbs up while on manoeuvres with comrades resisting the full-scale Russian invasion (Picture: James Dee)
The British combatants are holding firm as Ukraine waits on requests for new arms to be answered by Western leaders and materialise on the battlefield in time for an expected spring counter-offensive.
‘Out in the trenches the Russians have got higher ground,’ Dee said.
‘Our positions are bad but we have a job to do and that is to hold ground.
‘We get direct tank, mortar and artillery fire on our trenches. A lot of my friends have been killed or wounded in these exact trenches.
‘The Russians now try to walk down to attack more at night so it’s suggested these Russian soldiers are more special forces soldiers.
‘We know we have a Russian mountain brigade in front of us who are trained in mountain warfare.
James Dee gives the thumbs up despite the draining nature of the war in the eastern Donbas region (Picture: James Dee)
‘A few nights ago a position next to us got hit really bad with tanks, three Ukrainian people were killed and some wounded from our position.
‘We could hear the screams of the wounded, it was hard to listen to.
‘I wanted to go over to help but it was just too risky for us and our orders were we had to stay where we were.
‘The next day we got the dead onto the vehicle to be taken away. We also had missiles from long-range artillery hit our main base area.
‘Unfortunately they killed a civilian doing his day-to-day work.’
James Dee (left) and James Chadwick with anti-tank weapons which have been used to devastating effect against Russian forces (Picture: James Dee)
Dee told Our World that he felt compelled to sign up after watching news reports of Russian forces firing on Ukrainian civilians.
He enlisted via Facebook in March 2022 and after a month’s training fought in the north-eastern Kharkiv region amid a series of counter-offensives.
Serving with the English-speaking 3rd Platoon of the Karpatska Sich battalion, the gunner was awarded with a medal and citation recognising his service after his first deployment.
Chadwick, 22, from Leeds, quit the British Army to join the fight a few weeks after the full-scale invasion began. Speaking on Our World while back in the UK over Christmas, he echoed his friend’s sentiment by saying they shared a ‘brotherhood’ with their comrades.
Brits narrowly avoid Russian kamikaze drone in ‘hell’ of Ukraine frontline
Josh LaytonMonday 6 Mar 2023 1:08 pm
Share
17SHARES
[IMG alt="Caption: Exclusive: Brits narrowly avoid kamikaze drone in ?hell? of Ukraine frontline
James Dee
James Dee has returned for a second deployment with Ukrainian forces and is currently on the frontline in the eastern Donbas region (Picture: James Dee)
Two British men serving with Ukrainian forces have narrowly avoided being hit by a Russian kamikaze drone after returning to trench warfare conditions on the frontline.
James Dee and James Chadwick, who appeared in a BBC documentary, were seconds away from being hit by the battlefield unmanned aerial vehicle strapped with home-made explosive.
Dee, 30, told Metro.co.uk last night that it was a ‘whole different war’ since he returned to the conflict for a second time on February 1, with many of his friends being killed or wounded.
He described how he and his comrades are dug in and withstanding freezing temperatures and direct fire as they face a Russian mountain brigade occupying higher ground.
Top Storiesby Metro00:3000:36Bernd Leno makes Arsenal title prediction and denies'toxic feelings'
While in the UK at the start of the year, Dee, from Middlesbrough, antiestéticatured in the Our World episode about Ukraine’s volunteer foreign fighters.
The former welder, who had no military experience before joining the fight, has since returned to an even more deadly and exhausting frontline in the eastern Donbas region along with fellow UK citizen James Chadwick.
‘Since coming back it’s been a whole different war,’ he said. ‘We’ve had minus 17 temperatures some nights, you can’t feel your feet or hands.
‘When I was first here we had concealment from the tree leaves, now it’s not there or the trees have been blown up where tank rounds have hit them.
‘It’s basically how anyone would imagine hell to look like.’
James Dee has taken up arms as a machine gunner with a Ukrainian unit in the eastern Donbas region (Picture: James Dee)
The volunteers are in the Donetsk oblast as Russian forces attempt to seize the province’s capital Bakhmut in a bloody assault that has led to the battleground being dubbed ‘the meat grinder’.
Dee is a machine gunner engaged in intense combat amid trench warfare conditions that have evoked comparisons with the First World War.
Describing the near-miss, he said: ‘We had just come back from the trenches when I heard a noise, I knew straight away that it was a drone.
British fighter James Dee records life on Ukraine's frozen frontline
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Loaded: 17.42%
0:00
Play
Mute
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 0:49
Fullscreen
‘When I looked up there was a small suicide drone hovering.
‘I had never seen one before but I knew straight away what it was and I shouted “drone!” to let everyone know.
‘It turned towards me and James so I shouted, “it’s a kamikaze!”.
‘All we could do was run as it came towards us. It had home-made C-4 strapped to it and it just nose-dived straight into the ground. If we had set off walking like 10 seconds sooner we would have been blown up.
‘We both felt our legs stinging for about a day after, I think where the rocks and dirt had hit the back of our legs from the blast.’
James Dee has described coming under Russian fire while dug in with Ukrainian forces in the east of the country (Picture: BBC/Our World)
The volunteer gives the thumbs up while on manoeuvres with comrades resisting the full-scale Russian invasion (Picture: James Dee)
The British combatants are holding firm as Ukraine waits on requests for new arms to be answered by Western leaders and materialise on the battlefield in time for an expected spring counter-offensive.
‘Out in the trenches the Russians have got higher ground,’ Dee said.
‘Our positions are bad but we have a job to do and that is to hold ground.
‘We get direct tank, mortar and artillery fire on our trenches. A lot of my friends have been killed or wounded in these exact trenches.
‘The Russians now try to walk down to attack more at night so it’s suggested these Russian soldiers are more special forces soldiers.
‘We know we have a Russian mountain brigade in front of us who are trained in mountain warfare.
James Dee gives the thumbs up despite the draining nature of the war in the eastern Donbas region (Picture: James Dee)
‘A few nights ago a position next to us got hit really bad with tanks, three Ukrainian people were killed and some wounded from our position.
‘We could hear the screams of the wounded, it was hard to listen to.
‘I wanted to go over to help but it was just too risky for us and our orders were we had to stay where we were.
‘The next day we got the dead onto the vehicle to be taken away. We also had missiles from long-range artillery hit our main base area.
‘Unfortunately they killed a civilian doing his day-to-day work.’
James Dee (left) and James Chadwick with anti-tank weapons which have been used to devastating effect against Russian forces (Picture: James Dee)
Dee told Our World that he felt compelled to sign up after watching news reports of Russian forces firing on Ukrainian civilians.
He enlisted via Facebook in March 2022 and after a month’s training fought in the north-eastern Kharkiv region amid a series of counter-offensives.
Serving with the English-speaking 3rd Platoon of the Karpatska Sich battalion, the gunner was awarded with a medal and citation recognising his service after his first deployment.
Chadwick, 22, from Leeds, quit the British Army to join the fight a few weeks after the full-scale invasion began. Speaking on Our World while back in the UK over Christmas, he echoed his friend’s sentiment by saying they shared a ‘brotherhood’ with their comrades.
