Russians forced us to kneel and asked did we have any last wishes... then shot at ground in between us

A FREED Briton today tells how he and a fellow aid worker endured a mock execution and were relentlessly tortured by Russian troops. 

- AMY SHARPE and PHIL CARDY

Dylan Healy and Paul Urey were ambushed during an aid mission in Ukraine, ordered out of their cars and forced to kneel by the roadside.

One soldier cocked his gun... and Dylan feared the worst. But it was a sick hoax as the man fired a shot into the ground between them... and the men were bundled off to a prison.

After their ordeal, the pair vowed to each other that if the worst ever did happen to one of them, the other would contact their family.

And after father-of-four Paul, 45, later died in captivity, Dylan kept that pledge during an emotional meeting with his pal’s daughters Courtney, 17, and Chelsea, 21.

They met just days ago – when Dylan had the grim task of explaining how he and Paul had been tortured... but he also had a special message for the girls. Dylan, 22, tells the Sunday Mirror: “Me and Paul promised that if anything happened we would speak to each other’s families.

“He said, ‘Let my family know I love them, that I thought about them every day.’ I never thought I’d have to do it – after we were captured, I thought we’d both die.”

Paul was diabetic and Dylan was at least able to tell Chelsea and Courtney the Russians did give him medication.

GUILT

And he told the girls: “He was desperate to make it home to see you.” Courtney says: “It was difficult hearing what Dad went through, but at least we know the truth now.

“At one point there were reports he’d been dismembered. That was awful, but thankfully untrue.”