Oleksandr Matsievsky. Photo: the 119th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade of the Chernihiv region
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to serviceman Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, as per the president’s latest address to the nation.
“Today I conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine upon Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, a soldier. A man whom all Ukrainians will know. A man who will be remembered forever. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine, and for his ‘Glory to Ukraine!’” Zelensky said.
The video of the unarmed soldier being shot to death after his having said “Glory to Ukraine!” spread online on 6 March. Journalist Yuri Butusov and Territorial Defence forces of the Chernihiv region said that the soldier killed in the video was a fighter of the 163th battalion Oleksandr Matsiyevsky.
According to the defence forces, on 30 December Matsiyevsky and four other soldiers had ended up in a fight in the outskirts of the city of Soledar, after which contact with them was lost.
Matsiyevsky’s mother, his son Mykhailo, and soldiers from his division recognised him in the video. Matsiyevsky’s body was returned to his family as part of a POW swap between Russia and Ukraine.
