Body found in Ukraine in search for missing UK fighter Daniel Burke
A body has been found in Ukraine in the search for a British former soldier who was reported missing a month ago.
Daniel Burke, 36, a former paratrooper from south Manchester, was reported missing by his family on 16 August.
Mr Burke was one of thousands of foreign volunteers to leave their homes last year to fight against Russia in Ukraine.
Greater Manchester Police said they are working with Mr Burke’s family and authorities in Ukraine to return his body to the UK.
Last week, Mr Burke’s mother Diane told Manchester Evening News that Ukrainian police had searched her son’s apartment in Zaporizhzhia and that it was empty with no signs of a break-in.
She said that he was last seen on CCTV on 11 August and that the last time she spoke to him, he was on “good form.”
Police confirmed on Saturday that a body had been found – though they provided no details on where it was recovered.
“This is an upsetting time for Daniel’s family, we have family liaison officers in contact with the family and offering support,” Det Supt Lewis Hughes of Greater Manchester Police said.
“My team and I are working with the Ukrainian authorities to make formal identification with a view to repatriating Daniel following that process.
“Daniel’s family have asked for privacy at this difficult time.”
In 2019 Mr Burke travelled to Syria to fight against ISIS alongside the Kurdish, Western-backed YPG. He then set up Dark Angels, a foreign volunteer group based in Southern Ukraine.
In December, speaking to i, Mr Burke described the horror of fighting in the battlefield in Ukraine. “It wasn’t like we were fighting Isis, al Qaeda or the Taliban. You are fighting a conventional army. It’s artillery, it scares the shit out of you. Any arsehole that says to me they are not scared of artillery, they don’t belong on a battlefield. It is terrifying,” he said.
Another Dark Angels volunteer, Sam Newey, 22, died in a Russian Motar strike in Eastern Ukraine on 31 August.
