IN COLD BLOOD Hero Brits killed evacuating civilians from Ukraine frontline ‘were EXECUTED by Wagner or Russian troops in war crime’

TWO British aid workers killed in Ukraine could have been executed by Russian or Wagner fighters, their families fear.

Christopher Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 48, were helping evacuate civilians from the frontline in the eastern Bakhmut region when they vanished on January 6.

Andrew Bagshaw was helping evacuated Ukrainian civilians when he disappeared, a suspected victim of Putin's Wagner mercenaries

Russian forces then brandished passports belonging to the pair and claimed at least one was dead.

Pictures appearing to show their documents were posted online by the pro-Putin Wagner private army.

Later that month, Parry's family confirmed via the Foreign Office that they were killed as they attempted a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar.

It was claimed they died in an artillery strike.

But Bagshaw's devastated parents Professor Philip and Dame Susan Bagshaw have since been investigating their son's death and believe he and Parry were killed in cold blood by Russian forces and probably Wagner mercenaries.

Professor Bagshaw told Stuff: "There’s a whole story here that’s not been told.

"He must have been subject to a war crime; how badly he was abused we’ll probably never know."

They say a British post-mortem for Parry reveals he was shot in the head and torso, while a Ukraine post-mortem of Bagshaw showed the same.

The couple, who live in New Zealand, also claim Bagshaw's mobile phone was unlocked two days after he went missing.

Professor Bagshaw added: "He was definitely shot. He may well have been abused.

"We don't like to think how badly, but the report of his post-mortem is horrific."

The pair also say they have spoken to a source in Ukraine who claimed Bagshaw and Parry were pulled from a car and shot over suspicions they were troop instructors from the Nato military alliance.

Professor Bagshaw believes the aid workers were killed by Wagner troops and is working with a lawyer.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the government in New Zealand is supporting the investigation.

He told Stuff: "The Government is backing the International Criminal Court’s independent investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine so cases like Andrew’s can be investigated."

Hipkins added that $2.6million (£1.3m) has been given to the International Criminal Court to support war crimes investigations.

The Wagner group is a private army, formerly led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

It was supported by Russian president Putin and used thousands of convicted criminals, including murderers, thugs and sex offenders on the frontlines in Ukraine.

In June, Prigozhin led thousands of troops on a failed uprising against Russian forces. He was branded a traitor by Putin and exiled to Russian puppet state Belarus.

Prof Bagshaw and his wife previously described their son as “a very intelligent, independently minded person”, who went to Ukraine as a volunteer to help people.

Meanwhile Parry, a running coach from Cheltenham, previously told Sky News that his job was to drive about an hour to frontline villages to evacuate civilians.

He said: “I take each day as it comes. Sometimes when you see some pretty terrible things it does stay with you, for example the burnt out corpse of a mother who we had been evacuating.

“But you you’ve got a job. You’re in a position of care and as soon as you pick these people up you’ve got to get out and get away from the artillery, which is constantly going off arounds

“When you get back and think ‘that was kind of close that was only 100 metres away from us’ that's when you think maybe my luck might run out but it’ s worth it to save these people.”

He had been raising money through to buy a new off-road vehicle to carry out his work.

Members of the Wagner group on a tank on a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia