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A Conservative MP’s former Royal Marine son is believed to be part of a foreign volunteer team which took down a Russian transporter during a dramatic battle in Ukraine.
The BTR was badly damaged and exploded following attacks from what appeared to be American, British and potentially Canadian volunteers, with Ben Grant, 30, thought to be among the heroic team, according to the i newspaper.
He is the son of Helen Grant, who is the Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald.
Video shared on social media showed the group of soldiers face off with the armoured carrier.
After being hit by the foreign volunteers’ launchers, the BTR – understood to be Russian – was reportedly damaged by unfired ammunition exploding.
Ben Grant leads British and American volunteers to Ukraine to fight. Ben Grant, 30, who spent more than five years as a commando in the Royal Marines, said he had not told his mother Helen Grant, a former Government minister, that he was heading for Ukraine
In the clip, approximately four men can be seen in a formation in an unknown location, although it appears to be in Ukraine.
Nearing explosions can be heard in the background and the group advances forward, with one member saying: ‘Go, go, go!’
As they emerged from shrubbery into a more open field, the troops appeared a hair’s width away from being struck down by an advancing BTR.
A Conservative MP’s former Royal Marine son is believed to be part of a foreign volunteer team which took down a Russian transporter during a dramatic battle in Ukraine
A Russian transporter was badly damaged and exploded following attacks from what appeared to be American, British and potentially Canadian volunteers
‘Shoot it!’ one man was then heard shouting, prompting a soldier in the squadron to try to fire off a launcher, but it didn’t work.
Another soldier then fired his launcher – which users on Twitter have identified as a RGW-90 HH – and got a hit in.
The group then fell back and retreated into the woods. Explosions could still be heard in the background as one soldier warned ‘it’s facing towards us’ and another yelled to ‘pull back’.
Drone footage captured in a separate clip, said to be from the same incident, showed the BTR exploding in a cloud of smoke as it tried to follow the squadron.
Mr Grant (pictured with his mother) was reported to have left for Ukraine in March, joining a number of Brits who were heading to aid in the country’s war efforts
Bits of shrapnel could be seen flying off the vehicle.
Twitter account Ukraine Weapons Tracker – posted the clips with the caption: ‘Foreign Volunteers (American, British, and possibly Canadian) targeted a Russian BTR-80 APC with a RGW-90 HH launcher, damaging it and causing ammo to cook off.
‘Note that a Czech RPG-75M appears to fail to function correctly.’
MailOnline has reached out to Ms Grant’s office for comment.
Mr Grant was reported to have left for Ukraine in March, joining a number of Brits who were heading to aid in the country’s war efforts.
He served in the elite corps for more than five years as a commando, was among a group of seven ex-servicemen to arrive in the besieged country on the weekend.
After being hit by the foreign volunteers’ launchers, the BTR – understood to be Russian – was reportedly cooked off by ammunition
In the clip, approximately four men can be seen in a formation in an unknown location, although it appears to be in Ukraine
The father of three, a veteran of Afghanistan, said his decision to leave to fight was made without the knowledge of his mother, who represents Maidstone and is Boris Johnson’s special envoy on girls’ education.
‘I haven’t been sent, nothing to do with the Government, nothing to do with my mother,’ he told the Guardian. ‘Just want to make that clear, completely off my own back, I decided to do this. I didn’t even tell my mum, but it is what it is.’
Mr Grant quit the Royal Marines after admitting to assaulting two men in a nightclub after they shouted racial slurs – with a judge sparing him from immediate punishment due to him being provoked.
Also fighting in Ukraine is grandfather Robert Grady, 61, a former member of Hibernian FC’s hooligan firm Capital City Service during the early 1980s.
The father of one – who received a year-long football banning order in 2014 after a brawl before the Scottish Challenge Cup – featured in a recent propaganda video wielding an assault rifle alongside two fellow fighters.
‘I’ve travelled to Ukraine to help Ukraine fight the Russians,’ he said. ‘I’ll do anything I can in my power to save Ukraine from Putin, everybody in the world please help Ukraine.’ In another message posted from the frontline, he wrote: ‘I intend to kill as many as I can.’
