Hayden Davies: Haggard and bearded, British PoW captured in Ukraine is paraded on film by Russians

Will Stewart and Chris Brooke
Daily Mail
A British soldier thought to have been killed fighting for Ukraine has been paraded alive in a propaganda video by his Russian captors.
A British soldier thought to have been killed fighting for Ukraine has been paraded alive in a propaganda video by his Russian captors. Credit: Supplied

A British soldier thought to have been killed fighting for Ukraine has been paraded alive in a propaganda video by his Russian captors.

The footage shows bearded Hayden Davies, a married former soldier in the British Army, looking dishevelled and wearing a military camouflage shirt.

The 30-year-old, who was reportedly captured in Donetsk, claims in the clip – which appears to have been recorded under duress – that he had served with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, but was kicked out in 2023 for smoking marijuana.

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He was previously reported dead by a Russian channel that monitors foreign fighters.

In the heavily edited footage, which surfaced yesterday from his Russian captors, he says he joined the International Legion – a unit of foreign soldiers who fight for Ukraine – after his career in the British Army ended.

He then criticises Ukrainian commanders – and even claims his life was saved by a Russian soldier on the battlefield.

‘Obviously, with the International Legion, you sign a contract and you’re brainwashed into thinking that you’re in the right,’ Mr Davies says, seemingly talking to a person behind the camera.

He complains about receiving no proper training because there were ‘no heavy guns’ for drills.

‘The money is **** and your chain of command don’t care about you. They do not care,’ he said. ‘They will use you as meat.

The 30-year-old, who was reportedly captured in Donetsk, claims in the clip – which appears to have been recorded under duress – that he had served with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, but was kicked out in 2023 for smoking marijuana.
The 30-year-old, who was reportedly captured in Donetsk, claims in the clip – which appears to have been recorded under duress – that he had served with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, but was kicked out in 2023 for smoking marijuana. Credit: Supplied

‘They’ll say you’ll be on a listening post for three to five days. They’ll keep you there for ten days and then send you to a different position.

‘I point-blank refused to go to a different position.’

Mr Davies claims he was taken prisoner after hiding from a drone, adding: ‘I heard a drone, so I got straight in a building and I seen another guy.’ He said it was a uniformed Russian soldier and added: ‘When he realised I wasn’t a threat, his weapon was down.

‘He gave me a cigarette. Literally carried me into safety. Out of the way of all the drones and artillery that was coming in.’

The Foreign Office did not respond to a request to comment last night.

It is not the first time Mr Davies has made the news. In September 2020, when he married his childhood sweetheart, Chelsea-Marie at Taunton Register Office in Somerset, they were said to have had ‘the UK’s cheapest wedding’.

They cancelled their original plans for a more expensive wedding with more than 100 guests after the country went into lockdown at the start of the pandemic. When restrictions were eased they spent just £300 on the big day, including a £10 eBay dress and a Brewers Fayre meal for the couple and their two guests that was discounted under the Eat Out To Help Out scheme.

Mr Davies also made the local paper at the age of 16 when he was credited with saving the life of a young woman and received a certificate from the council in recognition of his bravery.

The footage shows bearded Hayden Davies, a married former soldier in the British Army, looking dishevelled and wearing a military camouflage shirt.
The footage shows bearded Hayden Davies, a married former soldier in the British Army, looking dishevelled and wearing a military camouflage shirt. Credit: Supplied

The teenager rushed to the aid of a woman who was having an epileptic fit after seeing her collapse in the street in Northallerton, North Yorkshire. Although shoppers were walking past and ignoring Charlotte Bell, 20, Hayden remembered his Army cadet training.

He said at the time: ‘I feel quite excited to be called a hero, it’s a first. I would do it again.’

Mr Davies’ Russian propaganda video follows one released in November of captured British fighter James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, who is also a former British Army soldier.

His father, Scott, told the Daily Mail at the time that he hoped his son would be used as a ‘bargaining chip’ and then sent home.

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