In eastern Ukraine, a German citizen who fought on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was killed as a result of Russian artillery shelling. The publications of the media group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) were informed about this on Friday, March 15, by the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine.
According to the formation, the 37-year-old volunteer was working with a unit operating reconnaissance drones from a dugout that had been destroyed by a direct hit the day before, on March 14. “When we managed to dig him up, he was already dead,” RND quotes International Legion officials as calling the fighter, known only by his first name Stefan, “a real hero.”
The German Foreign Ministry said that the department “is aware of reports of a German who may have died during the fighting in Ukraine.” According to the ministry, the German Embassy in Kyiv is investigating the circumstances.
RND reports that journalists from this publishing group spoke with the German a little over a year ago in Kharkiv. Then Stefan said that he served in the Bundeswehr for five years and was sent to Afghanistan three times. He owned a transport company in southern Germany, and in April 2022 he left for the war in Ukraine. Stefan did not want any additional information about him to appear in the media, because Russia, as he claimed, had placed a bounty on his head.
In mid-February, a German woman, Savita Wagner, who fought on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was buried in Kyiv. She died in eastern Ukraine at the end of January.
Evhen Zhukov
DW.com
