Nikolai Ilin, the combat medic serving with Ukraine’s 137 Marine Battalion, went by the code name “The Estonian.” But he was actually an ethnic Belarusian.
Ilin was an opposition activist in his home country, and after having trouble with the government, he fled to Estonia, which granted him political asylum in 2006. He managed to acquire Estonian citizenship in 10 years.
In 2018, he signed a contract with Ukraine’s Armed Forces to fight against Russian-backed militants in Donbas.
Ilin was killed on July 13, when he volunteered to participate in a mission to recover the body of a Ukrainian scout killed in the no-man’s land by a landmine. Ilin, together with a group of Ukrainian soldiers, approached the body — but, despite mutually agreed state of ceasefire in the area, Russian-backed militants opened fire.
Ilin rushed to help to an injured comrade, but was killed next.
His severely mutilated body was recovered in the Ukrainian territory only four days later.
On July 22, the soldier’s loved ones, as well as civilian and military participants, paid the last respects to him at the St. Oleksandr Church in Kyiv.
According to his brothers in arms, Ilin had a dream of marrying a Ukrainian woman and getting back to Tallinn for living a peaceful life.