Noah Haglund retweetledi
On March 6, 2023, a short video spread across the world. It lasted only 12 seconds, but in that time it opened the eyes of millions of people to the true price of freedom.
In the video, a Ukrainian prisoner of war stands in a dug-out “grave,” taking a drag from a cigarette. Russian soldiers stand around him. He calmly looks ahead and says only two words: “Slava Ukraini!” (Glory to Ukraine!)
In response, a burst of automatic gunfire is heard.
That day, the world witnessed one of the most brutal war crimes committed by the Russian army. And Ukraine saw the birth of a new Hero.
It was later revealed that the man in the video was Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a fighter of the 163rd Battalion of the 119th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of Chernihiv region.
His story was later told by The Wall Street Journal in an article titled: “How the Last Act of Defiance by a Ukrainian Soldier Made Him a Hero.”
On December 30, 2022, Matsievskyi and a group of fighters moved to a forest belt near the village of Chervona Hora, not far from Bakhmut. Their mission was to support Ukrainian units defending their positions.
A group of five soldiers, including Oleksandr, tried to hold back the Russian advance. According to his comrades, the enemy attacked in waves, literally stepping over the bodies of their own dead.
Sergeant Vasyl Zamola later recalled that Russian forces managed to outflank their position—exactly where Matsievskyi and his comrades were stationed. Ukrainian soldiers tried several times to break through to them, but the enemy fire was too intense.
When night fell, the platoon had to withdraw to safer positions.
“Otherwise we all would have been killed,” his comrades explained.
After the battle, Oleksandr was listed as missing in action.
His mother, Paraskovia Demchuk from Nizhyn, had last spoken with her son on December 29. When rumors about losses in the battalion appeared, she began to worry. Later, his comrades informed her that her son had gone missing.
On February 9, the police called her. At the morgue she identified her son by a scar above his eyebrow and a birthmark on his leg. His body was riddled with bullets.
She buried her son, but at that time she still did not know exactly how he had died.
Only in March 2023 did Paraskovia accidentally see online the short video of the execution of a Ukrainian soldier.
The soldier in the video was her son.
His comrades immediately confirmed it. Later, the Security Service of Ukraine officially identified the fighter. It was sniper Oleksandr Matsievskyi.
His last words became a symbol of unbreakable spirit.
Oleksandr was born in Moldova, where his mother had once gone to work at a shoe factory. He grew up athletic and worked as an electrician. For some time he lived and worked in Russia, but in 2008 he returned with his family to Nizhyn.
When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Matsievskyi joined the Territorial Defense without hesitation.
By December 8, 2022, he was already near Bakhmut. For him and many of his comrades, it was their first real combat experience.
But even in captivity he remained a warrior.
His comrades, whose remains were found beside him, are buried next to him in Nizhyn.
“He showed that the spirit of Ukraine is unbreakable,” his mother told The Wall Street Journal.
Later, Oleksandr Matsievskyi was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.
His final words are now known all over the world.
And they sound like a reminder:
in the struggle for freedom, even a single voice can become the symbol of a nation.
Eternal memory to the Hero 🕯️
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