On Thursday, a farewell was paid in Kyiv to Lithuanian soldier Tadas Tumas, who was killed near Bakhmut in Ukraine.
The farewell ceremony took place at St Nicholas Cathedral in Kyiv. It was attended by Tumas’ fellow soldiers, Lithuanian community members in Ukraine, and Lithuanian Ambassador to Ukraine Valdemaras Sarapinas.
“He could have lived in a free Europe, enjoying life under NATO protection. He could have played with his two children and loved his wife. He could have done all that. But one day he realised that if this racist plague was not stopped, sooner or later, war would come to his country, to his city, to his home... And he went out to defend Ukraine, which today defends the entire civilised world,” Konstantinas Gudauskas, who lives in Ukraine, wrote on Facebook.
“He died as a soldier of light. Like a true hero near the town of Chasiv Yar, which I had never heard of. But he died so that others could live,” he said, urging Ukrainians to come and pay tribute to Tumas.
After the ceremony, the remains were taken for cremation and will later be brought to Lithuania for burial.
On February 23, it was reported that Tumas and another soldier died when a Russian drone hit a moving car. The Lithuanian soldier and his partner were reportedly carrying mines to the front lines near Bakhmut.
Tumas served in the 92nd Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and had been volunteering for just over three months before he was killed.
He is the first Lithuanian soldier to die while fighting on the side of Ukraine against Russian aggression.
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