Photo: Anton Gerashchenko/Twitter
Ukrainian youth boxing champion and Olympian Maksym Galinichev was recently killed while defending his native country in the ongoing invasion launched by Russia, according to officials.
Galinichev, 22, was killed while serving with the 25th Separate Airborne Sicheslav Brigade, having enlisted as a volunteer, in the Linsk on March 10, according to Anton Gerashcehnko, an advisor to the Ukraine Minister of Internal Affairs.
"Maksym Galinichev, 22, European youth boxing champion, died defending Ukraine in Luhansk region. Maksym enlisted as a volunteer and came back to the frontlines twice after being wounded and recovering. Eternal memory to Hero," Gerashcehnko wrote.
Galinichev began boxing at the age 10 and won a gold medal at the 2017 European Youth Championships, as well as a silver medal at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in 2018 and had opted to forego the European Boxing Championship in 2022 in order to volunteer for the brigade.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his country would conduct military operations in Eastern Ukraine during an NBC News translation of a speech addressing the Russian population in Moscow on February 24, 2022.
The announcement served as the final action ahead of an attack by Putin and the Russian military -- which the U.S. and European allies to the neighboring Ukraine have attempted to prevent from taking place through diplomatic discussions -- and has resulted in the deaths of thousands of soldiers and civilians, as well as reported incidents of Russian troops committing sexual violence and torture against Ukrainian women and children, according to an investigation conducted by the United Nations.