The first Ukrainian soldier killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula is Serhiy Kokurin, 37, a warrant officer from the Simferopol military unit.
Kokurin was on the observation tower and shot in the heart when Russian-backed forces attacked his military unit.
Kokurin was born in Simferopol and enrolled in the Ukrainian army in 1997, “and since that time never gave up on the idea of serving the Ukrainian nation,” the Defense Ministry of Ukraine wrote on its Facebook page.
Kokurin had a 4-year-old son, with his second child set to be born in a few months. “Everyone in the team knew him as an honest, hardworking person and a smart professional,” the notice reads.
