Tributes to British student volunteer, 22, killed in Ukraine

A British student who volunteered to fight in Ukraine despite having no military experience has died during combat in the country’s east, his family have said.

Sam Newey, 22, a psychology student at Birmingham University, went to Ukraine last year to join thousands of other foreigners coming to Kyiv’s defence.

He was following in the footsteps of his older brother, Daniel Newey, who had fought as a volunteer with Kurdish anti-Islamic State forces in Syria from 2017-2018. He is understood to have been killed in a Russian mortar strike during fierce fighting on Wednesday.

Daniel Newey, 30, disclosed news of his brother’s death in a tribute posted on Facebook, praising him for taking a stand against “Russian imperialism”.

“I cannot put into words how broken I feel,” he wrote. “I also cannot emphasise how proud I am of my little brother. He’d just turned 21 when he decided to answer the call and travel to Ukraine to push back against Russian imperialism. Sam, you gave your life for people you never knew and acted with courage, morality and honour.

“Not only are you my little brother, but you’re an exceptional man, a good soldier and one of the bravest people I ever had the privilege of knowing.”

Mr Newey, from Solihull, first went out to Ukraine in the spring of last year, not long after the start of the invasion. He was mentored in his steep learning curve by a fellow British volunteer, Daniel Burke, who had fought alongside his older brother in Syria. Mr Burke advised Mr Newey to train first as a medic, to see if he could handle “the wounded, the dead and stress”.

Mr Newey later served with the Dark Angels, a foreign volunteer unit founded by Mr Burke that fought around the southern Kherson front, at one point destroying a Russian tank with a missile.

When the unit disbanded, Mr Newey headed east to work with Ukraine’s GUR reconnaissance units, which specialise in forward observation work to gather intelligence on enemy positions. His older brother, a former paratrooper, also spent time with him as a volunteer in Ukraine, but recently returned to the UK.

Jack Knight, a fellow British military volunteer who knew Mr Newey, was among many who paid tribute to him. “He was a nice, genuine guy – very funny and always making people laugh,” he told The Telegraph. 

“Even though he was a civilian he adapted very quickly to military life. A lot of volunteers come out there thinking that war will be like playing Call of Duty, and go home at the first sign of trouble. Sam stuck it out, which says a lot.

“We had beers together in Kyiv just about six weeks ago, and he seemed in good spirits.”

In 2020, Sam Newey and his father Paul, 52, were charged with terrorism offences after sending Daniel money while he was fighting against IS in Syria. At the time, he was enlisted with the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG. While the group was backed by the West to lead the successful ground assault against Isis, Turkey regarded it as a terrorist organisation because of its links to militant Kurdish separatist groups. 

The charges against Sam and his father Paul were eventually dropped.

Paul Newey said on Thursday night that he supported his son’s decision to fight in Ukraine, despite the dangers. “I knew Sam was taking a big risk fighting for what he believed in but it’s still a terrible shock and my feelings are still very raw,” he told The Sun. “I’m so proud of my son and will always know he died doing what he wanted to do.”

Sam Newey is believed to be the seventh Briton to have died while serving as a military volunteer in Ukraine, where the Foreign Office advises against all travel. Fears are also growing for the safety of Daniel Burke, who disappeared from his flat in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia three weeks ago. Friends fear he may have been kidnapped or killed.