“Before he left, he proposed to me. We were planning the wedding after he got back. It wasn’t meant to be”- The heartbreaking farewell of the comrades of young Ukrainian soldiers
Ukrainian soldier Mykola Zambaftchuk planned to marry his girlfriend when he returned from the war against Russia. But, he did not return.
Zambaftchuk, 25, and two other soldiers were laid to rest in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv today after being killed on the battlefield.
“He was a really good mate, a really good mate. He loved me and took care of me a lot. He was very devoted to me and his friends,” his fiancee Oleksandra told Reuters during the funeral.
“Before he left, he proposed to me. We were planning the wedding after he got back. It wasn’t meant to be.”
At the funeral, a uniformed soldier held a portrait of Zambaftchuk smiling, holding a small dog under his right arm.
“We have a little dog, Arey. It’s in the photo. I will raise him, I will take care of him – he really wanted it. He called him his son, (and) so it is.”
Led by a soldier carrying a cross and another holding the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine, the mourners formed a procession behind the coffin of Zapafchuk and the other two soldiers.
Zambaftchuk had planned a career in IT after graduating from Lviv National Technical University.
“He volunteered for a ‘military operation,’ as they (the Russians) call it, but essentially it’s a war against the Ukrainian nation,” said his father, also named Mykola Zambaftchuk.
“His nickname was “Bilyi” (“White”), so everyone called him honest and decent,” he said.
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