Kyiv unveils monument honoring war prisoner executed for saying “Glory to Ukraine”

Kyiv unveiled a monument dedicated to Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, a territorial defense soldier, who was announced missing but then was recognized as a war prisoner being shot by Russian forces for responding with the national motto.

The mother of the fallen soldier attended the opening, admitting that she found out about his execution from footage posted by Russian troops. She says she is proud of her son, who loved his country to the last breath.

The sculpture was created at the expense of patrons and charitable foundations.

On December 30, 42-year-old Oleksandr and four of his comrades were on a mission near Soledar in the Donetsk region, but none returned. The circumstances of his death were unknown until this video of him being shot was posted.

"I didn't sleep all night, I kept seeing it. But I felt some kind of lightness and some kind of ray of light when I saw how my son died. And it's so hard, but I really felt like I saw my son's character, so resilient, so unbreakable, because he said: "Mom, I will never surrender to captivity." He even repeated this at night: "Glory to Ukraine." He was fighting, so brave and fearless that I cannot tell you," said his mother Paraska Demchuk.

Oleksandr was a sniper, but in that mission, he was captured with an assault rifle, said his unit commander Oleksandr. The video shows the soldier without ammunition and body armor, near a hole dug in the ground.

The soldier's body had already been returned to Ukraine during one of the exchanges. The cause of death certificate states that the man died of a gunshot wound.

"I found the strength to watch this video and I compared. When I was at the identification of the body, there were two holes in the heart from the shoulder, two holes in the other shoulder, a hole in the right side, and the head was caved in. There was no face, only this eyebrow and he even had a sticker there. I recognized his chest, his figure, his hands," his mother said.

Oleksandr Matsiyevsky was buried on February 14 in his northern hometown Nizhyn.

On March 12, Ukraine's Security Service finally identified and officially confirmed the identity of the defender who was shot by Russian troops for saying "Glory to Ukraine."

On March 13, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to Oleksandr Matsiyevskyi.