Parents return from holiday to find son left to fight in Ukraine

Brian Ennis returned from a vacation surprised his son Adam wasn’t waiting at the airport as planned. He had flown to Ukraine instead.

Adam Ennis was supposed to pick up his parents from the airport, but instead, he had flown to Ukraine.

The first his mum and dad knew their kid had jetted off to war was after returning from a three-month vacation visiting their daughter in Thailand.

Adam was due to be waiting at arrivals.

“But his friend picked us up instead. His friend wasn’t going to say anything until Adam spoke to us,” his father, Brian Ennis, told BBC Scotland.

“So we weren’t aware until he phoned us that evening. He was already in Ukraine at a camp.”

The 35-year-old garage owner from Scotland joined a foreign legion and is currently embedded in a platoon of 50 men defending Kyiv.

Ukrainian police carry a body away from a five-storey residential building that partially collapsed after a shelling in Kyiv as Russian troops try to encircle the city. Picture: AFP.

He posted an image in camouflaged fatigues on the Facebook page of his company, Big B’s Garage in South Lanarkshire, saying he went to Ukraine to fight Vladimir Putin’s Russian army.

“I believe in my purpose of being here and I am not looking from praise or criticism,” he wrote.

“For those who want to know I am fine but the situation out here is not great. The enemy don’t have a humanitarian bone in their body but I firmly believe we will prevail.”

About 16,000 foreign fighters from 50 countries volunteered to fight in Ukraine, but many began fleeing the country soon after Russia bombed a training base in Yavoriv near the Polish border.

Ukrainian authorities said 35 people were killed and 134 were injured. The numbers of volunteers dwindled amid complaints of poor organisation, a lack of weapons, onerous contracts and being sent straight to the front line.

Mr Ennis, however, has remained in the country for the past two weeks.

While he looked the part dressed in uniform, with army boots and in a barrack-like dorm room, his father said Adam has no military experience.

Mike and Alex from the United Kingdom who served in Afghanistan as paramedics arrive at the Polish Ukrainian border crossing to join the fight against Russia. Picture: Getty Images.

“He is a fit boy and he has some rifle experience... He’s a crack shot. There’s more to it. He knows how to handle weapons,” Brian said.

“The people who are with him have looked after him very well. They are all very experienced, and out of 200 people they picked 15 of them to be in this unit,” he added. “He has plenty of international soldiers around him.”

During the opening weeks of the war, Mr Ennis has seen “horrible things” but he has committed to being in it for the “long haul”.

“The people are crying and hugging him when they learn where he has come from,” Brian said.

“[He] said he couldn’t allow this evil regime to win in Ukraine because it will be Poland and other countries next. That was the last call we had from him.”