Former soldier helping Ukrainian army deal with explosives

A former soldier is helping Ukrainian soldiers deal with explosives landing in the country.

Ben Remfrey, from Guernsey, trained members of the Ukrainian military and has been providing guidance and information virtually.

Russia continues to invade Ukraine, and after eight days of attacks has taken control of a major city.

Mr Remfrey said he and his team were doing as much as they could to help the Ukrainian soldiers.

He runs a specialist company dealing with explosive remnants of war based in Malta and operates globally to provide training in how to deal with such operations.

He said: "They've referenced many materials through Whatsapp and other mediums to me in terms of pictures and asking what they are and how they best deal with them, so myself and my colleagues, who are experts, are providing information day and night and doing all we can to give assistance going forward.

"We are very mindful the levels of contamination on the streets of Ukraine are going off the scale at the moment."

Mr Remfrey and his team are specialists in training for explosive remnants left in war zones and have trained engineers from the Ukrainian ministry of defence "in being able to conduct explosive disposal to international standard" for the past four years.

"Hopefully the international sanctions should have some affect at some stage, but the Ukrainian people are very proud, professional and realise they have a long way to go in terms of getting to what they perceive a western standard of how they govern themselves," he said.

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