Ukraine war: Welsh politician Mick Antoniw's relative dies

Mick Antoniw (left) has just got back from Ukraine

A Welsh politician has revealed that a Ukrainian relative has died in the war against Russia.

Mick Antoniw said his cousin's husband died in the battle for Snake Island, a defining early moment in the war.

The Pontypridd Member of the Senedd has been delivering aid to Ukraine and said its people continually heard about "atrocities, torture, concentration camps, liquidation squads".

"There is a new fascism in Europe that has to be defeated," he said,

The Labour MS spoke about the loss as he joined about 100 others at a pro-Ukraine rally in Cardiff.

• 'My guilt at leaving Ukraine on eve of invasion'

• Ukraine's shadow army

"My cousin's husband was a helicopter pilot, he was shot down by a Russian rocket, he was 24 years old," he said.

"This was at the beginning of the conflict, the first month of the conflict he died, along with many others."

'A hero of Ukraine'

"It was a battle over the Black Sea for Snake Island, an area that has gone down in history", he said.

"He is a hero of Ukraine, the funeral was attended by the entirety of his village.

"But it's not just him, there are so many others who lost their lives in this way."

Attending the same rally as Mr Antoniw with her baby son is Daryna - her father died last week last week in Ukraine and her husband remains in the country

"My heart goes out to family members who now live this life, but particularly those in the east of Ukraine," he told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement .

Residents living in parts of eastern Donetsk have been told to evacuate the area.

'No alternative, no negotiation'

Mr Antoniw said there was "unity" among the Ukrainian people because "there is no alternative, there is no negotiation".

He said: "I was in Kyiv until the day before the invasion actually started in Ukraine, I managed to meet for a couple of hours some family members of mine.

"But of course, I have others who are serving in the east, who are in the forces - we've lost one family member already.

"It is the day-to-day continual, repetitive information about atrocities, torture, concentration camps, liquidation squads."

The MS, who also serves as the counsel general for Wales, has just returned from the country delivering supplies donated by trade unions.

This photo was taken in Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region by the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, of a residential home destroyed in a missile strike

Mr Antoniw said Ukrainian miners' union members were asking for pick up vehicles to deliver people to the front lines.

They had delivered "an enormous amount of medical supplies", including tourniquets and trauma bandages, he said.

"Gas supplies no longer exist in Donetsk - they will face a very very cold winter.

"Emotionally it is very difficult to see."