On 6 May 2025, in the Izyum area of Kharkiv region, Chris Garrett, a British demining specialist and co-founder of the humanitarian organization Prevail Together, died. He was fatally injured while disarming an explosive device. Australian volunteer Nick Parsons was killed with him, and another team member was seriously injured.
Chris arrived in Ukraine in 2014, having worked in Myanmar, where he helped local communities clear landmines. In Ukraine, he worked in frontline areas such as Mariupol, Shyrokyne, and Pisky until 2018.
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022, Chris returned. On 27 February, just days after the first missile strikes, he arrived in Ukraine and stayed to help where he was needed most.
Since 2022, Chris has worked side by side with the Ukrainian military, police, and emergency services. His training has complemented the training that government agencies provide to new soldiers and sappers during the war. Chris had also worked with Ukrainian experts in detecting and disposing of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and navigating difficult, heavily mined, and contaminated terrain. Through his guidance and training, Chris Garrett helped hundreds of Ukrainian sappers gain life-saving knowledge. Chris’s contribution has been transformative. It is estimated that his volunteer demining teams have cleared hundreds of thousands of munitions and unexploded ordnance on Ukrainian soil, saving thousands of potential victims.
Chris did all this as a volunteer, without any remuneration. In July 2023, he and his partner, paramedic Courtney Pollock, founded Prevail Together, a humanitarian organization that provides demining for civilian needs, including critical infrastructure, training for local personnel and building the capacity of local authorities, evacuation of victims, and provision of frontline medical care.
“Chris has never been limited by his job duties,” his team says. “When Ukrainian cities are attacked by missiles, he and his team go exactly where the missiles hit to help on the spot. ”
Recently, during an operation near Kharkiv, they responded to a drone strike that set a building on fire. As Chris later wrote, they arrived on the scene only to be hit by a second strike—a deliberate Russian “double strike” aimed at killing rescuers:
“We were only 30 metres from the building when the second drone hit. If it had fallen a few metres further north, the outcome would have been completely different. But when someone needs help, we come.”
This approach defined Chris. He lived by a simple but powerful code: a selfless dedication to saving lives and confronting brutal and senseless aggression.
Chris Garrett’s death is a blow to the community of sappers and volunteers in Ukraine and beyond. But his legacy lives on – in every safe area, in every sapper trained, in every life saved. Many people and communities are grateful to Chris for his heroic contribution to Ukraine and humanity.
If more people gave even a fraction of what Chris gave to Ukraine, there would be less suffering in the world. Everyone who worked with Chris felt it, and that is why he was so widely loved and respected.
Chris showed us what courage is. He is gone, but his impact will never be forgotten.
His dedication and self-sacrifice will be remembered as an example of true heroism.
Authors:
Community of EOD specialists,
Prevail,
Mriya Aid, White Stork,
Forest Release
Ukrainian Tactical Products
Elektrohydralivka
