A Ukrainian European boxing champion has died fighting for his country against Vladimir Putin’s invading forces.
It is understood that Maksim Galinichev, 22, was serving in the 25th Szechoslav Airborne Brigade in the Luhansk region, where he was killed.
Galinichev won a gold medal for Ukraine at both the 2017 and 2018 European Youth Championships. He also participated in the Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2018.
Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s interior minister, confirmed Galinichev’s death in a Twitter post.
The boxer enlisted as a volunteer, the official said on March 24, and “has returned to the front lines twice after being injured and recovering.”
“Eternal memory of the hero,” Gerachenko wrote, referring to the eulogy for Galinichev, who was overwhelmed by the news of his death.
It is understood that boxer and soldier Maxim Galinichev (pictured), 22, was serving in the 25th Szechoslav Airborne Brigade in the Luhansk region, where he was killed.
Galinichev won a gold medal for Ukraine at both the 2017 and 2018 European Youth Championships. He also competed in the Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2018
Britain’s GB Boxing team described the news as “tragic” in a post on Twitter.
“Everyone at GB Boxing is saddened to learn of the tragic death of 22-year-old Ukrainian European Youth Champion Maksim Galinichev,” the organization said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Maxim’s friends and family at this difficult time.”
Fellow Olympian Vladislav Heraskewicz praised Galinichev for “giving his life” for Ukraine. And added: “Glory to the hero.”
Herasevich said that Galinichev was killed on March 10. In the spring of 2022, he wrote, the downed boxer refused to participate in that year’s European Boxing Championships so he could volunteer for the Airborne Assault Forces.
Luhansk has seen heavy fighting since Russian forces poured across the border on February 24, 2022. It is one of four regions Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, as his forces were being attacked by Ukrainian counterattacks.
His order came to annex Luhansk, along with Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, though without full control of any of the four regions.
Moscow has been trying to gain a firm foothold in eastern Ukraine since then, but it still faces strong resistance from Kiev’s defensive armies – who are believed to be preparing another counterattack that could push Russia back again.
Galinichev is the latest of a number of Ukrainian athletes who have lost their lives in battle, fighting for Ukraine against the illegal Russian invasion, which began last year.
His death will intensify calls for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be banned from the 2024 Paris Olympics, which Ukraine and its allies are pressing against over Putin’s ongoing invasion of the sovereign state.
Ukraine this month refused to send its athletes to the International Boxing Association (IBA) women’s world championship in India due to the presence of Russian and Belarusian boxers.
In October last year, the International Boxing Association (IBA) – led by Russian official Umar Karimlev – lifted the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing under their flag.
This was done despite the International Olympic Committee’s recommendations to keep the ban in place, and angered Ukraine – leading to a boycott.
News of Galinichev’s death comes after a United Nations expert sparked an IOC advisor’s fury by suggesting that Russian athletes who actively served in the military invasion of Ukraine be allowed to return to international sports – if they did not take part in war crimes. .
UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights Alexandra Zantaki said late Sunday that only Russian military personnel involved in “alleged war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity or war propaganda” should be denied neutral status to compete in the International sports games before 2024. The Paris Olympics.
Xanthaki has angered Ukrainian athletes who took part in a call hosted by the International Olympic Committee to consult them ahead of the Olympic announcement scheduled for Tuesday to update the sports bodies’ guidance 16 months before the opening of the Paris Games.
It is understood that Galinichev (seen on the left in a video posted online by the Ukrainian Boxing Federation in January 2022) was killed on March 10, and that in the spring of 2022 the late boxer refused to participate in that year’s European Boxing Championships so that he could participate. at the European Boxing Championships. He could volunteer for the Airborne Assault Forces
Tributes poured in for the 22-year-old fighter (pictured) who, according to reports, previously returned to the front lines twice after being wounded.
Ukraine’s government and sports officials want the International Olympic Committee to ban all Russians from the 2024 Games and demand that most of the country’s recent Olympic medalists belong to the military.
Xanthaki wrote on her official Twitter account on Sunday her view that the “athlete who participated in the war will be included” to be neutral to compete in sports without national symbols such as flags and anthems.
The Greek lawyer later explained that it was the norm for “men all over the world to be conscripted to take part in wars” and to follow orders, including killing. It also referred to the “illegal aggressive” conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Israel and Iraq.
We cannot hold responsible all men who are engaged in illegal wars by their nations on orders. Xanthaki wrote: Those who commit crimes, we must.
It is unclear how far the IOC will follow its advice ahead of its executive board meeting on Tuesday. It is scheduled to discuss “solidarity with Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and Belarus, and the status of athletes from these countries.”
The IOC’s initial advice to sports bodies within days of the war’s start last February was to exclude athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus, which allowed itself to be used as a launching pad for the Russian invasion and will soon host Moscow’s nuclear weapons.
The International Olympic Committee cited Russia’s “extremely grave violation” of the Olympic truce applied at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, as well as the safety and security of sporting events.
Since January, the International Olympic Committee has pushed to find a way to reintegrate Russians and Belarusians into global sports. He cited advice from Xanthaki and another UN expert that excluding athletes solely on the basis of their passport would be discriminatory and would violate their human rights.
On Friday, Zantaki briefed members of the official sports committees from most national Olympic bodies, including Ukraine, on a two-hour call hosted by the International Olympic Committee.
She acknowledged in an exchange on Twitter that the Ukrainians “strongly disagreed with my analysis,” adding that participating athletes from countries in the south agreed with her.
“It makes no sense to sport,” Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladislav Heraskevich, a two-time Olympian, told The Associated Press Monday of Xantaki’s views on the call and the difficulty of proving an athlete’s connection to war crimes.
Pictured: A Ukrainian artillery unit takes a rest while awaiting orders to fire on Russian forces in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, where Galnychev is believed to have been killed
Pictured: A local resident stands next to a car in front of an apartment building that was badly damaged during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in the settlement of Tushkivka, in Luhansk region, Russia-controlled Ukraine, March 24.
“Should we do a documentary about how he committed a crime?” said Heraskewicz, who drew attention at last year’s Beijing Olympics by holding up a “No to war in Ukraine” banner after the race.
The International Olympic Committee was speaking on Monday with representatives of the Olympic sports bodies who will decide for themselves the conditions for allowing athletes to compete in their upcoming events, and define neutrality.
A strong stand was taken against the IOC last week by world track and field athletics, which refuses to accept any Russian or Belarusian for the foreseeable future.
Final decisions on the Russian athletes competing in the Paris Olympics still rest with the International Olympic Committee. Article 44.3 of the Olympic Charter states: “No person has the right to participate in the Olympic Games.”
