Mum of Manchester aid worker 'living worst nightmare' after son 'captured by Russian forces in Ukraine'

The mother of an aid worker thought to be from Manchester has said she is living her 'worst nightmare' after her son was reportedly captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Linda Urey told Sky News from her home in Preston, Lancashire, that she had "begged" her son Paul Urey not to return to the war-torn country last week. She said he had returned to Ukraine about a week-and-a-half ago after he'd come home for leave.

Non-profit group The Presidium Network said Paul and another humanitarian aid volunteer, Dylan Healey were captured on Monday morning (April 25) at a checkpoint south of the city of Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine.

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According to the PA News Agency, Mr Urey was born in 1977 and is from Manchester and Mr Healey was born in 2000 and is from Cambridgeshire. Mr Urey is said to have Type 1 Diabetes and requires daily insulin.

The pair were not working for the Presidium Network, which helps to get aid into Kyiv, but the organisation said the pair were driving to help a woman and two children to evacuate when they went missing.

Ms Urey said she had begged her son not to return to Ukraine and said she last spoke to him in the early hours of Monday morning. "I begged him not to because... Russia's bad," she told Sky News.

"I was on FaceTime with him up to 4am on Monday morning and that was it – gone." Asked how she was feeling, she said: "Like I want to die, like I don’t know what to do any more. I don’t know. It’s horrible."

Ms Urey went on to describe her son as "too caring" and "too kind", adding he usually messages and FaceTimes her several times a day. She said: "Something’s wrong – they’ve got him, definitely. He would contact me