Went To Ukraine Since April As A Medic, 2 US Citizens Came Home Lying Stiff

Photo via @DefenceU

JAKARTA - Last April, Luke Lucyszyn and Bryan Young flew all the way from the United States to Ukraine to become volunteer medical workers. Now they have to go home dead.

They along with a pair of Canadians and Swedes were volunteers to defend Ukraine from the Russian invasion who was the victim of the attack.

Luke Lucyszyn and Bryan Young were killed in an ambush by Russian tanks on July 18, their Ukrainian commander said on Facebook.

The tank attack also killed Canadian Emile-Antoine Roy-Sirois and Edvard Selander Patrignani.

Their leader, Ruslan Miroshnichenko, explained that the Russian attack left Lucysyzyn injured, and that prompted Young and the others to try to help him.

Additional tank fire killed four foreign volunteers in the Donetsk region, a disputed territory in Ukraine, Miroshnichenko said.

Miroshnichenko's remarks come after the US state department last weekend announced the recent deaths of two Americans in Ukraine. Now more and more Americans have died in Ukraine.

Lucyszyn's parents, Kathryn and George, said their son went to Ukraine in early April to volunteer as a medic. Lucyszyn even asked his parents to send him tactical vests and other gear.

"He didn't go out there to be a hero," Kathryn Lucyszyn said of his 31-year-old son. "He went there because he wanted to help people."

Miroshnichenko said his unit was nicknamed Lucyszyn "Skywalker" after the protagonist from the original Star Wars film trilogy who shared his first name.

Resembling their struggle with Luke Skywalker, Miroshnichenko called Lucyszyn, Young, Roy-Sirois, and Patrignani "bright and good warriors, heroes of Ukraine".