The Daily Beast

Russia Goes After British MP’s Son for Killing of Chechen Commander in Ukraine

Allison QuinnJune 2, 2022, 7:58 AM·2 min readIn this article:

• Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.More content below

• Boris JohnsonPrime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2019

Russia’s National Guard has confirmed that a Chechen commander was killed in a bloody firefight with foreign volunteers in Ukraine—and they singled out the son of a British lawmaker as one of those responsible.

Ben Grant, a 30-year-old former Royal Marine and the son of Helen Grant, a Conservative MP and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s special envoy on girls’ education, joined British and U.S. servicemen fighting Russian forces in Ukraine back in March, telling British media at the time that he felt compelled to act after seeing footage of Russian troops bombing a home as a child screamed.

“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.

Viral footage of fighting in the Kharkiv region published by The Daily Telegraphlast week captured Grant and other Western volunteers, part of a Ukrainian counteroffensive to force Russian troops out of the region, under heavy Russian fire as they rescued a wounded fellow volunteer.

“We’ve got to move now or we’re gonna die!” Grant can be heard shouting.

The harrowing video, filmed by a helmet-mounted camera, then shows as they turned the tables to ambush a Russian armored vehicle, striking it with a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.

“Shoot it now!” a man identified as Grant yells as the weapon is fired.

Russia’s National Guard says Sgt. Adam Bisultanov, the commander of a separate operational brigade of the North Caucasus District of the National Guard, was killed in the “attack” on Russian forces by the “group of mercenaries from Great Britain and the U.S.”

“During protective fire, the armored personnel carrier in which [Bisultanov] was located took three hits from a grenade launcher and was wrecked,” the National Guard said in a statement Tuesday.

“The GoPro camera captured footage of the attack and one of the fighters of the mercenary group, the son of British MP Ben Grant,” the statement said, adding that the video will be provided to military investigators. Russia’s Investigative Committee announced this week that it was investigating Grant for his role “leading” the ambush.

(editor：)