Body of British boxer killed in Ukraine left in no man’s land
- - Body of British boxer killed in Ukraine left in no man’s land
Richard PendryDecember 28, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Lee Johnston was killed as he tried to reach a forward position to take over from soldiers who were wounded or dead
The family of a British man killed while fighting for Ukraine fear his body might never be recovered from no man’s land.
Lee “Janty” Johnston, 46, a former amateur boxer who ran a children’s boxing club in north Belfast, is officially listed as missing in action in Donbas.
His death was reported on Oct 15 by the unofficial group Memorial: International Volunteers for Ukraine, but his body has not been recovered.
It is thought to be in the “grey zone”, or no man’s land, where the remains of thousands of soldiers from both sides are believed to lie after nearly four years of war.
Constant drone surveillance and artillery strikes mean it is almost impossible to recover bodies from the zone.
Lee Johnston in a family photograph and, below, during his 26 weeks in Ukraine as a volunteer
Lee Johnston in uniform during his stay in Ukraine
Mr Johnston’s mother, Dolores, told The Telegraph that a ceasefire was the only hope of his body being recovered and brought home to Belfast.
An early draft of a US-Russia-Europe peace proposal is understood to have included provisions for the return of missing soldiers’ bodies on both sides.
“I can’t rest while Lee is lying out there,” she said, adding that she wanted to know more about her son’s final moments.
She said: “I know there are many Ukrainian mothers also waiting for information like me. And I have as much sympathy for Russian mothers who have lost their child and are feeling the same way I do.
“You can’t have closure till you know what happened.”
He was ‘like a father figure’
Under Ukrainian military rules, until a body is recovered, families are told only that a soldier is missing in action.
Many thousands of Ukrainian families remain in the same position as Mrs Johnston, without the official death notification that would bring them closure or the chance to bury their loved ones.
Nicolai Holm Pedersen, a Danish volunteer who fought alongside Mr Johnston, said: “Janty was like a father figure to me all through basic training. His death hit me very hard.”
Mr Pedersen said his friend’s body remained where he had fallen because it was too dangerous to retrieve it.
He said Mr Johnston was killed on his first mission while attempting to reach a position to relieve soldiers who had been killed or wounded.
During the hazardous two-day journey to his designated forward position, Mr Johnston had passed the bodies of other Ukrainian soldiers still lying where they had fallen.
Drones have transformed the battlefield, expanding kill zones far beyond traditional front lines, so recovery teams must wait for brief windows when surveillance eases.
Ukrainian forces firing towards Russians in Donbas, where Russian advances have left Mr Johnston’s body further out of reach of the Ukrainians - Reuters/Stringer
Ukrainian soldiers install anti-drone nets in Isyum, about 15 miles from the front line - Deigo Fedele/Getty Images
A further complication for the Ukrainian recovery units is that in areas where Russian forces are slowly gaining territory, the Ukrainian dead on the battlefield are being left ever further out of reach.
“We do everything we can to get all soldiers’ bodies back and return them to the families,” an official from the unit in which Mr Johnston served, the Third Assault Brigade, told The Telegraph.
Ukrainian units sometimes use robot ground drones to bring back the dead, but the technology is new and recovery is not always feasible.
The only alternative is to have soldiers carry a body out, putting more lives at risk, the Ukrainian official added.
Scammer preyed on family
Mr Johnson’s family’s ordeal was compounded by a scammer posing as a Ukrainian soldier involved in body recovery.
A man calling himself “Sergeant Czaba” contacted Mrs Johnston, claiming he could retrieve her son’s body for a fee, and urging her to solicit donations through a fundraising page.
“The cruellest part was the pressure from ‘Sgt’ Czaba to pay to keep Lee’s body in a freezer,” Mrs Johnston said. “He told me I didn’t care if Lee went into a common grave.”
She said the man sent menacing messages and exploited the family’s grief, adding: “I told him I knew exactly what he was doing. He betrayed Lee’s trust. Lee believed he was his friend.”
The scammer is thought not to have been a soldier but may have shared accommodation with Mr Johnston in Lviv when he enlisted.
An aerial view shows the heavy damage to buildings in Kostynantynivka, a town on the Donbas front line - Handout/National Police of Ukraine/AFP via Getty Images
Mrs Johnston said her son would not have wanted anyone else to be killed attempting to recover his body, and she is hoping that if the Ukrainians cannot retrieve it, it may be returned by the Russians in a future exchange.
Mr Johnston’s brother Derek said he had wanted to be buried in Ukraine. “He knew the chances of getting to the end of the war were not good,” he said. “He knew he wasn’t coming back. Everyone tried to tell him not to go.”
Mrs Johnston said when her son’s body was recovered, she would like to visit the boxing club in Lviv, Ukraine, where he helped train children during his recruitment.
“I would like to bury half his ashes in Ukraine and bring the other half home to Belfast,” she added.
“Lee loved Ukraine. He spent 26 weeks there, but it was like he lived 26 years. He was in his element. Whatever happened, he wanted to stay. He loved every second of being there.”
The Foreign Office has confirmed Mr Johnston is missing.
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Source: “AOL Breaking”
