A soldier who defiantly declared ‘Glory to Ukraine’ while taking a last puff on his cigarette before being executed by Russian troops has been commemorated with a statue in his hometown.
Oleksandr Matsievskyi’s final moments went viral, with Volodymyr Zelensky later hailing him as a symbol of resistance for the Ukrainian people.
The president posthumously awarded him the ‘Hero of Ukraine’ medal.
In the video, shared in March, the sniper with a unit from Chernihiv can be heard saying ‘Slava Ukraini’ – a century-old phrase popular as an expression of resistance to Russia’s invasion.
Standing smoking a cigarette in a wooded area, apparently unarmed, Matsievskyi is then seen slumping to the ground in a hail of gunfire from unseen shooters.
Kyiv blamed ‘brutal and brazen’ Russians for his death, as did his mother Paraska Demchuk, 68.
‘He would have taken all of them with him if he had a grenade,’ she said, as she proudly showed the medal Zelensky bestowed on her son.
Holding back tears, she added: ‘He would say to me, “Mum, I will never let them capture me”. He wouldn’t just bandy words about.
‘It was on the inside, it was like a core inside him.’
Kyiv has opened a criminal investigation into Matsievskyi’s death.
He was quickly talked of as a hero on social media, where many supporters posted the words ‘Heroyam Slava’, or ‘Glory to the Heroes’, the traditional response to Slava Ukraini.
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