Simon Lingard

The British paratrooper Simon Lingard has been killed in battle against the Russian Army. The volunteer soldier was struck by shrapnel during a Russian attack on Monday. His 17-year-old son says he will miss his dad but that he is proud of him.

Stacey Longworth, the mother of Mr Lingard's two children, told the BBC he had been a soldier for most of his life and was a former member of the parachute regiment.

She said she was "just waiting for him to tell me he was going to go" when the Russian invasion started.

Ms Longworth said she kept in touch with him when possible while he was in Ukraine before getting a phone call on Monday night to say he had been killed.

'Loved and adored'

"I'm aware they were under attack, and that it was shrapnel, and that it was instant," she said.

"I've been in contact with close friends of his in Ukraine. They are absolutely distraught."

She said telling his two sons their father had died had been "the most difficult thing I've ever had to do".

"We want people to remember him as a hero," she said.

She described Mr Lingard - who was known as Grimmy to his friends - as "very funny [and] an inspiration".

"He was loved and adored by so many," she added.