'Every man takes his choice... a lot of us, the foreign volunteers, have chosen to come over to this side, to the Russian side'
A British soldier exposed fighting alongside Vladimir Putin's Russian troops in the Donbas region of Ukraine is from the north west.
Stimson, 48, has posted a video from the frontline showing soldiers trudging through a muddy field past two dead bodies, walking past land mines and digging up a hand grenade. Like the British jihadis who joined ISIS in Syria, these men face jail if or when they return. Stimson is in the Pyatnashka brigade, an international militia that fights Ukrainian soldiers with Russia in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
He insisted he did not fight but, since returning to Russia in February, he has admitted on social media that not only did he fight, but he took part in the 2015 Battle of Debaltseve. People who know of Stimson say he was homeless and using heroin after leaving jail last June. He later posted a photo of two pen drives, mocking: "Didn't find these did you? You stupid thick b******s". Stimson is on a three-month visa to Russia, which runs out on May 17. He was off the radar until Saturday, when he posted a video entitled "Back to Russia with love". A day later, he posted a video in reply to a foreign volunteer who criticised him. Stimson says: "Every man takes his choice, we do what we believe is right.
A former acquaintance of Stimson said: "He had a sh** life before Donbass and a sh** life afterwards. I think it's more likely he's in Russia so he can go back to his few months when he felt something. He made a huge f*** -up by leaving Donbass. A lot of people who fought, stayed, found girlfriends, got married, had kids. He fought for five minutes and spent years in jail. I'm sure he has been kicking himself ever since.
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