As the ordnance littering the battlefield evolved, so did his skills, but the risk was constant. So was the bravery required to do the job, day in and day out.
Another member of the bomb disposal team, from Australia, was also fatally wounded and a third badly injured in the blast.
Bobby traps were hidden in match boxes, while computer-programmed devices created a deadly new threat to bomb disposal teams.
Chris Garrett was killed aged 40 while carrying out explosive clearance work near Izyum (Photo: Instatgram@bring_me_the_swampy)“It’s going to take tens and tens of years to be able to clear Ukraine. We’re probably looking at nothing too dissimilar to Cambodia,” he said.
“From the humanitarian aspect, whether it be the police and emergency services, there’s accidents happening every month, every week,” he said.
Asked how he coped with the stress of his role, he was matter-of-fact: “To be honest I don’t really think about it.
In subzero conditions, his team hunted anti-tank, anti-personnel and butterfly mines, as they tried to clear a path for wounded troops to be evacuated.
The 40-year-old died near the Izyum frontline along with another member of the bomb disposal team (Instatgram@bring_me_the_swampy)“There’s a huge amount of submunitions being fired. In a normal world, you just stop to wait until it was safe and then you do the clearance. But it doesn’t stop. All day, all night.”
Shaun Pinner, a former British Army soldier and Ukrainian marine who worked alongside him with the volunteer group Prevail, which his friend founded, said he had been motivated by “the injustices that Russia was doing here”.
“He was doing one of the most dangerous jobs out here. He’d seen the developments and innovations that Russia would use in their ordnance and explosives.
Shaun Pinner (L) and Chris Garrett. Former British Army soldier and Ukrainian marine Mr Pinner said his friend was motivated by Russian injustice
When The i Paper first spoke to Chris in April, 2022, he had been in Bucha, site of the infamous Russian massacre of hundreds of civilians.
He spoke of his disgust at the Russian occupiers’ callous methods, with retreating Moscow forces booby-trapping bodies.
“We have seen grenades stuffed into soap drawers of washing machines. It is absolutely indiscriminate. It is just trying to instil fear into the population.
He had first arrived in Ukraine in 2014, leaving in 2018 before returning three days after Russia’s full-scale invasion (Photo: Instatgram@bring_me_the_swampy)
A former tree surgeon who briefly served in the British Army, had first come to Ukraine in 2014, shortly after the war with Russia-backed separatists erupted.
After leaving the country in 2023 with his partner for the birth of their child, they soon returned. “Ukraine was unfinished business,” he explained.
Terrifying footage showed the Iranian-designed Shahed flying bombs exploding yards from him.
His friend and fellow volunteer Shaun Pinner believe he has saved thousand of lives (Photo: Instatgram@bring_me_the_swampy)“We’re so sick of this nonsense. And everything we’re seeing at the moment,” he added, directing his anger at Donald Trump’s treatment of Ukraine.
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The circumstances of Tuesday’s fatal explosion are still being investigated by Ukrainian authorities, Shaun, who first met his friend in 2018.
“It’s not something I ever want to do again. But it’s become normal out here. I’ve lost so many friends,” he said.
“We’ve got a mission to get him back home and repatriate into his family. It’s a massive loss of us here and a real punch in the stomach which we’re not fully processing yet.”
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