Guernsey veteran awarded Ukraine Cross of Support for clearing mines and explosives

The Ukrainian government has awarded a former soldier from Guernsey the official Cross of Support for his services during the war.

Ben Remfrey MBE, founder of the charity Friends of Ukraine EOD, has been helping to clear mines and other explosives in the country.

His charity has taught around 400 Ukrainians how to detonate Russian ammunitions that land in their country.

It's thought around 60% of those ammunitions fail to explode.

Ben says he is humbled to receive the award and credits his whole team.

He told ITV News: "I think recognition of the work that we do is very, very important. To be awarded the support cross by the military here is incredibly humbling."

Ukrainian Dr Yaraslav Stefak is an anaesthetist at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital in Guernsey. He has praised Ben's actions, saying: "What he's doing, teaching people to the mine territories is impressive.

"The death rate in Ukraine is quite high from mines. I believe in the last year there were about 20,000 incidents among the civilian population and of those, about 10% or 15% died.

"The rest sustained severe trauma, so this is a massive problem."

The work of Friends of Ukraine is far from over, Ben said that an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 'deminers' are needed to clear the mines in Ukraine.

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