Kyiv bids farewell to 19-year-old Polish volunteer fighter Filip Antosiak. PHOTOS
On Thursday, January 30, Kyiv bids farewell to 19-year-old Polish volunteer soldier Filip Antosiak, who was killed near Pokrovsk, Donetsk region.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to RMF24.
What is known about the deceased volunteer fighter
Filip Antosiak was a Polish citizen who lived and studied at Oxford in the UK for a long time.
He served as a volunteer fighter in the 25th Separate Airborne Sicheslav Brigade (25th SAB) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"He was a serviceman of the 25th Airborne Brigade, a unit of Rubak strike unmanned aerial vehicles. He was responsible for equipping heavy drones with which we attack enemy forces and deliver ammunition to the front line," said one of Philip's comrades-in-arms.
The soldier was killed in the Pokrovsk direction on January 19, 2024.
Farewell ceremony in Kyiv
The funeral service for the Pole took place on 30 January at St Michael's Cathedral, from where his body was taken to Independence Square in the centre of the Ukrainian capital. The anthems of the two countries were played over the coffin, which was covered with the flags of Poland and Ukraine.
The soldier's parents, Anzhelika Kuza and Marcin Antosiak, who live in England, came to the funeral ceremony. The last time they saw their son was in the middle of last year.
"We didn't know he was planning to come here. After finishing school in Cambridge, where we live, he was planning to join the British army and then officer's school in London, but he went to Ukraine. He was very proud to help people in this country. He talked about it every time he called us. In the first letter he wrote to us when he went to Ukraine, he apologised for deceiving us for the first time in his life, but that was his plan. It's very hard for us, but we are very proud of our child," said the young man's father.
The funeral was also attended by representatives of the Polish Consulate and various Polish organisations in Ukraine. The parents of the deceased soldier were presented with a decoration for merit and courage signed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Filip Antosiak will be buried in the town of Łowicz, Lodz Voivodeship.
