A DEVON aid worker has been killed in a drone attack police in Ukraine have told a local family.

The BBC said that according to a local police report, Annie Lewis Marffy (69), from Silverton, near Exeter, was killed by a Russian drone in the Donbas region in June.

The report says that her body has never been recovered and her family say they are in a battle to get a death certificate issued by local authorities or the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Without a death certificate, the family say they are unable to grieve properly or begin the probate process.

The FCDO said it was supporting the family but it was down to Ukraine authorities to provide a death certificate.

Ms Marffy had joined a self-funded mission organised by Aid Ukraine, a Ukraine-based charity.

She left for Poland in late May, driving a green Toyota RAV4 with a former soldier. When he fell ill and returned home, she continued alone, according to messages and calls home.

Ms Lewis Marffy told her family she had crossed into Ukraine on June 4.

Aid Ukraine said its last communication with Ms Lewis Marffy was on June 10.

The local police report, by the Kramatorsk District Police Department, names Ms Lewis Marffy and states that she sustained "injuries incompatible with life" after a Russian drone strike between June 11 and 12.

It says her body "remains in an area of active hostilities, making it impossible to conduct evacuation measures to transfer the body to the forensic medical examination department".

It is believed she had parked her car by the roadside when she and the vehicle were destroyed by the drone strike.

Her family said they were “very proud of who she was”, adding that she "was amazing, witty, kind, intelligent, adventurous".