'My last war' - Foreign volunteers on the front

Alan from England tells of the battle from the trenches, while Steve from the US hasn't registered with his embassy

- Luke Harding

Standing on a steep grassy hill, a figure in uniform took aim with a rifle. Several shots pinged into a pile of tyres. Nearby, police officers took turns firing from a DShK, or "Dushka", heavy machine gun, mounted on a greenpainted military vehicle. The rounds echoed across the rustic shooting range, scattering swallows. Down a track was a farmstead with cows.

The sniper was not a Ukrainian soldier but a 58-year-old British former marine called Alan. From Plymouth, in southwest England, Alan is one of a small group of foreign volunteers fighting in Ukraine, more than 16 months after Russia's full-scale invasion. Alan, who declined to give his second name, arrived last September. Soon he will go back to the frontline.

"You have to keep practising," he said, gesturing at a row of targets, all of which he hit. "The Russians are not on the whole very good soldiers but they are not stupid. It would be foolhardy to assume there are no decent units or motivated troops. They are potent, very dangerous, and good at artillery and electronic warfare."

Earlier this year Alan's battalion, the Da Vinci Wolves Gonor unit, spent months in close combat with Wagner fighters. His task was to keep open the "road of life" - a crucial supply route to the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces were battling with Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenaries. The fighting raged street by street.