Polish military volunteer, 19, killed in action near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast

Filip Antosiak, a 19-year-old Polish military volunteer who left his studies in the UK to join a Ukrainian strike UAV unit, has been killed in action near Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast.

Source: Polish news portal RMF24, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Antosiak served in a strike UAV unit of the 25th Airborne Brigade. He was killed in action near Pokrovsk.

Filip's parents, who live in the UK, said their son had told them he was planning a career in the British Army after leaving school in Cambridge, but he later admitted that he had gone to Ukraine.

"He was very proud of helping people here, in this country," said Marcin, Filip’s father. "He always talked about it when he called us. In the first letter he wrote to us after he went to Ukraine, he apologised for lying to us for the first time in his life, but that was his plan... It's very hard for us, but we are proud of our son."

On 30 January, a funeral service for Filip Antosiak with full military honours was held at St Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv, followed by a procession to Independence Square. During the ceremony, the national anthems of Ukraine and Poland were played in succession and his coffin was draped with the flags of both nations.

Filip's parents attended the funeral, as did representatives of the Polish Consulate and various Polish organisations in Ukraine. His parents were presented with a posthumous award for Filip from Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Filip will be buried in the city of Łowicz, Lodz Voivodeship, Poland.

Background: Earlier in January, the deaths of three other foreign volunteers were reported: Kaha Tiliadze from Georgia, Edgar Platonov from Latvia and Richard S. from Austria.

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