AN aid worker from Cheshire has been kidnapped by the Russian military.

Paul Urey – who is from Warrington – was among two men detained at a checkpoint in southern Ukraine on Monday, not-for-profit organisation Presidium Network says.

He and fellow detainee Dylan Healy, 22, are accused of being spies by Russian forces.

The Foreign Office is said to be ‘urgently seeking more information’.

Mr Urey’s mum says she is ‘extremely worried’ for his welfare as the 45-year-old has type one diabetes and requires insulin shots.

She said in a statement: “We know my son has been captured by the Russians while trying to help citizens in Ukraine.

“He was out there on his own accord.

“We want everyone’s support to bring him home. We have asked Presidium Network to help support us and who have helped verify my son has been captured.”

The two aid workers are believed to have been working independently, but were in touch with the Presidium Network.

They were said to be trying to rescue a family from a village near the city of Zaporizhzhia at the time of their capture.

Presidium described Mr Urey as a family man who previously spent eight years as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan, while Mr Healy – who was driving the humanitarian workers at the time – is described as a chef by training having worked for a hotel chain.

The pair have not been heard from since 4am on April 25.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News: “The Foreign Office obviously has been working very closely with those in Ukraine both to make sure the identification is correct and indeed to work with local authorities and to support families here.

"As we’ve set out right from the beginning, we don’t want British nationals to go and fight but there are many, many ways in which so many people can all support.

“We don't want people to go and fight, but obviously the Foreign Office is doing all it can to support and identify these two people.”

Messages from Mr Urey and Mr Healy, seen by the Mirror, show a long gap in interactions before a series of suspicious communications ‘claiming to be safe but not written in their natural style and failing to issue code words for security’.

The latter texts meanwhile are ‘riddled with spelling errors’.