Former British soldier Jordan Gatley died covering Ukrainian retreat, friend says

ITV News' James Mates speaks to one of the men who owes Jordan Gatley his life

A former British soldier who has been dubbed "a true hero" by friends and family died covering his squad's escape from Russian troops, ITV News has been told.

The battle for the strategic city of Sieverodonetsk in eastern Ukraine has become one of the bloodiest of this whole brutal war - with as many as a hundred Ukrainian troops being killed every day.

One of those killed was Jordan Gatley, a British army veteran who’d volunteered to lead, train, and fight alongside Ukrainian forces.

Anton, a combat engineer with eight years service in the Canadian military, was serving with Jordan in a special unit of the International Legion run by Ukraine's Military Intelligence Service.

He described the near hand to hand fighting that he and Jordan were engaged in on the day his friend and comrade was killed. 

Their squad had become pinned down by Russian special forces and encroaching tank units, with Anton describing their chances of escape as "minimal".

Gatley moved to a lower level of the building they occupied to provide covering fire.

Anton said: "You are no more than 10 to 20 meters away from the enemy, close contact, you are close enough to hear them speak.

"There was a lot of artillery, a lot of armoured units, we became engaged with Russian special forces units, Jordan went down a level to provide us with covering fire for the team to make it down the stairs.

"That is, unfortunately, when he was shot.

"It was a very dire situation, we had a T72 tank approaching us so we had to make a move very quickly or our chances of survival would have been minimal."

Gatley's move to provide covering fire enabled the rest of his team to escape the advancing Russian forces, his friend said.

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Members of the team called out to him, but he was unresponsive.

While still under heavy fire from Russian troops they discovered that Gatley had died from injuries he had sustained while providing them with covering fire.

Knowing that he'd have never left any of them behind and that his actions had given them a chance to escape - the team carried his body away from the encroaching Russian forces.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Ukraine.” In April, tributes were paid to Scott Sibley, a British military veteran reportedly killed in Ukraine while fighting against Russian forces. At that time the Foreign Office confirmed a British national had died in Ukraine.