While serving with Ukraine's foreign volunteer unit, a British soldier was slain.

22-year-old Callum Tindal-Draper had come to the nation to fight against Russia in spite of his family's entreaties to stay away. In an interview with BBC News, his father, Steven Draper, praised his son, a former NHS employee from Gunnislake, Cornwall.

“We begged and begged and begged him not to go,” he said. “But Callum said: ‘Dad, I’m not frightened of bullies and what’s going on in Ukraine is awful and someone needs to stand up for these people.’”

His mother, Caroline Tindal, said she had visited him in September and that he seemed as if he had found “who he was meant to be”. “It was such a transformation and he said to me: ‘Mum, coming out here was the best thing that ever happened to me, I’ve found who I was meant to be,’” she said.

“He found who he was meant to be, he became that person and he lived it.”

In a tribute post on Facebook, his mother wrote: “He fought till he could no longer hold them off any more and his platoon are calling him a ‘hero’ and ‘as brave as they come’.

“Twenty-two is a young age. But you lived and died following your heart, soul and morals. May you rest in peace and help watch over those who have passed.”

Tindal-Draper was a former student of Duchy college, in Stoke Climsland, Cornwall. The college’s Military and Protective Services Academy said he was a “model student” with a “strong moral compass” in a tribute on Facebook.

“He was a passionate, articulate and bright student, who was keen to learn, with a strong moral compass,” the post said. “He was very proud of his family history in the services.

“He was well liked and respected by his peers, and was not one to shy away from causes he believed in and was instrumental in collecting the three minibus loads of humanitarian equipment for civilians that the learners gathered when the war in Ukraine initially kicked off.”

The post added that Tindal-Draper worked for the NHS after finishing the course.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are aware that a British national has reportedly died in Ukraine and stand ready to assist the family in the UK.”