Two Americans killed fighting Russian forces in Ukraine’s Donbas region have been identified, according to a report.
Luke Lucyszyn and Bryan Young were among the four foreigners killed in action fighting for the Ukrainian side in Donetsk on July 18, Ukrainian Cmdr. Ruslan Miroshnichenko said. Lucyszyn’s parents and Young’s wife confirmed to CBS News that the State Department has notified them about the deaths.
TWO AMERICANS KILLED IN THE DONBAS REGION OF UKRAINE: STATE DEPARTMENT
“He didn’t go there to be a hero. He went there because he wanted to help people,” Kathryn Lucyszyn, the mother of the 31-year-old, told NBC News.
Lucyszyn traveled to Ukraine in early April to volunteer as a medic, according to his family, and he had asked his parents to send supplies, such as a tactical vest, due to his group’s lack of proper equipment.
Lucyszyn was injured after being hit by Russian shelling. When Young and other soldiers went to assist him, they were killed by tank fire, his group’s commanding officer said, according to a report.
Lucyszyn and Young are believed to be at least the fifth and sixth U.S. citizens to perish in Ukraine since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
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Russia’s focus in Ukraine shifted to the Donbas region in May after suffering heavy losses and a lack of territorial gains in other parts of the country.
While Russian forces have seized all the major cities in the Luhansk province of the Donbas, they have suffered heavy losses and have only made incremental progress in recent weeks, according to Western officials.
