‘My son was 18 and went to Ukraine as cannon fodder’

Being dropped off at the airport often marks the start of an exciting adventure for many 18-year-olds.

For James Wilton, who had volunteered to fight for Ukraine just months after finishing college, it would ultimately lead to his death.

The teenager from Huddersfield was killed in a drone attack in the village of Terny on the eastern front.

“He had his whole life in front of him,” says James’ father, Graham.

“I would swap places with him tomorrow just so he could be sat at home having a pint and watching the darts.

“I’m 52, I have lived my life. He was 18, who knows what he could have done? He didn’t have a life, that’s the worst part of it.”

According to Graham, James had wanted to join the British Army when he left Royds Hall High School aged 16. Instead he chose to enrol on a course in animal land care at Kirklees College.

Aged 17 and nearing the end of his education, Graham says James began to discuss wanting to go to Ukraine to help with the war effort.

Neither Graham, James’ mother, or his older sisters Sarah, 21, or Sophie, 22, had wanted the youngest member of the family to go, but they were unable to convince him to change his mind.

“I sat down with him and had various conversations about why he wanted to do it, what I thought about it, and in the end he decided it was something he wanted to do,” says Graham, who lived with his only son.

“I suppose he thought it was a bit of an adventure and he was going out there to help and hopefully make a difference.”

Graham says he reluctantly supported James, adding: “If I hadn’t have done it I would have woken up one morning and he would have gone.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Could I have changed his mind? No.”

Graham dropped James off at Manchester Airport on 28 April. From there he caught a flight to Krakow then boarded a bus to Ternopil, where he joined up with the International Legion and underwent a basic training programme lasting about four weeks.

Speaking ahead of the third anniversary of the start of the war later this month, Graham says his son and his comrades, who hailed from all over the world and had varying degrees of military experience, were “totally ill-equipped” and used as “cannon fodder”.

Still, he was unaware of James having any regrets about his decision during their regular telephone conversations, which Graham says were borne out of his son’s desire to hold on to some “normality”.

“He met some wonderful people and he would have had a lot of lifelong friends should he have survived.”

‘I’ll come and get you’

James was deployed to the east of the country as he and comrades sought to halt the grinding Russian advance spreading northwards from the occupied Donetsk region.

Graham says his son was on his first mission in July when he was killed running between two trenches in a field with no cover.

They had spoken just the previous night.

“He seemed OK. He did say at some point ‘I don’t think I’m going to be here as long as what I might be. It’s a little bit different to what I thought’.

“I said: ‘It’s up to you. If anything goes wrong or pear-shaped I’ll come and get you’. That was always an option if he decided he didn’t want to be there.”

According to the International Legion website, volunteers, who are paid for their service, can terminate their contract after six months.

“The mission he went on, he didn’t have to go. But because his best mate at the time was going he decided ‘well I’m going as well’.

“Given the circumstances I would have probably done exactly the same.”

In December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted his country had suffered 43,000 fatalities as a result of the war with another 370,000 soldiers wounded.

The death toll of Russian forces was estimated at about 200,000. Neither of these figures has been independently verified.

Graham made the 1,800-mile trip to Ukraine for his son’s funeral.

Reflecting on his death, he says James died “doing something he felt strongly about”.

“It’s very, very sad and unfortunate that he didn’t get to make as much difference as he would have liked.

“What happened to James unfortunately will probably be happening to someone else in the middle of a field in eastern Ukraine.

“It’s time people back home actually realised what it’s like out there.”

Back at the home Graham and James shared in Lindley, life is “quiet”.

“He grew up to be a nice young man and he would get on with anybody.

“I’ll go home tonight and he’s not sat there playing Playstation, it’s weird.

“We were great. We would sit there and have something to eat and talk about all sorts of stuff. There wasn’t anything, as far as I know, that he wouldn’t tell me, which is why he was open with me when he decided what he was doing.”

The night before James left he had spent the night with his father “laughing and joking” and drinking beer in front of the TV.

Graham’s grief is still raw.

“It’s just so draining. You try not to think about it, you are sort of OK then something comes up and it sets you going again.

“He was possibly a younger version of me. Maybe if I was him at a younger age I would have probably done the same thing.”

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