European boxing champion Maksym Galinichev is killed fighting for Ukraine aged 22

A Ukrainian European boxing champion has been killed fighting for his country against the invading forces of Vladimir Putin.

Maksym Galinichev, 22, is believed to have served for Ukraine’s 25th Sycheslav Airborne Brigade in the Luhansk region, where he was killed.

Galinichev won a gold medal for Ukraine at the 2017 and 2018 European Youth Championships. He also competed at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Minister of Ukraine, confirmed Galinichev’s death in a post on Twitter.

The official said on March 24 that the boxer volunteered and “came back to the frontline twice after being injured and recovering.”

“Eternal memory of Hero,” Gerashchenko wrote, leading the tributes to Galinichev that poured in following the news of his death.

Galinichev won a gold medal for Ukraine at the 2017 and 2018 European Youth Championships. He also competed at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics

British Team GB Boxing called the news “tragic” in a post on Twitter.

“Everyone at GB Boxing is saddened by the tragic passing of 22-year-old European Junior Champion Maksym Galinichev of Ukraine,” the organization said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Maksym’s friends and family at this devastating time.”

Vladyslav Heraskevych, a fellow Olympian, praised Galinichev for “giving his life” for Ukraine. He added, “Glory to the hero.”

Heraskevych said Galinichev was killed on March 10. He wrote that in the spring of 2022, the fallen boxer had refused to participate in that year’s European boxing championship so that he could volunteer for the airborne troops.

Luhansk has witnessed brutal fighting since Russian troops crossed the border on February 24, 2022. It is one of four regions that Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, when his forces were pushed out by Ukrainian counter-offensives.

His order to annex Luhansk, along with Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, came despite not having full control over any of the four regions.

Moscow has been trying to establish a firm foothold in eastern Ukraine ever since, but is still meeting strong resistance from Kiev’s defending armies – which are believed to be preparing for another counter-offensive that could push Russia back again.

Galinichev is the latest of several Ukrainian athletes to have lost their lives fighting for Ukraine against Russia’s illegal invasion, which began last year.

His death will amplify calls for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be banned from the 2024 Paris Olympics, which Ukraine and its allies are pushing for due to Putin’s ongoing invasion of the sovereign country.

This month, Ukraine refused to send its athletes to the International Boxing Association (IBA) Women’s World Championships 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 Kremlev – lifted the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing under their own flag.

This was done despite International Olympic Committee recommendations to keep the ban in place, and angered Ukraine, leading to the boycott.

The news of Galinichev’s death comes after a United Nations expert advising the International Olympic Committee sparked outrage for suggesting that Russian athletes who actively served in the military invasion of Ukraine should be allowed to return to return to international sports – if they did not participate in war crimes.

UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Alexandra Xanthaki, said late on Sunday that only Russian military members implicated in “accusations of war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity or war propaganda” should be denied neutral status in order to face 2024 in the run-up to 2024. participate in international sports. Olympic Games Paris.

Xanthaki angered Ukrainian athletes who took part in an IOC-organized call to consult them ahead of an Olympic announcement on Tuesday to update guidelines for sports organizations 16 months ahead of the opening of the Paris Games.

It is understood that Galinichev (seen left in a video posted online in January 2022 by the Ukrainian boxing federation) was murdered on March 10, and that the fallen boxer had refused to compete in that year’s European boxing championship in the spring of 2022. years so that he could volunteer for the Airborne Forces

Tributes poured in for the 22-year-old fighter (pictured) who, according to reports, had previously returned to the frontline twice after being wounded

The Ukrainian government and sports officials want the IOC to ban all Russians from the 2024 Games, claiming most of the country’s recent Olympic medalists had ties to the military.

Xanthaki wrote on her official Twitter account on Sunday expressing her view that “an athlete who has participated in war should be included” for a neutral status to participate in sports without national symbols such as flags and national anthems.

The Greek lawyer later clarified that it was customary for “men all over the world to be called upon to participate in wars” and to obey orders, including killing. She also referred to “illegal aggressive” conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Israel and Iraq.

“We cannot hold accountable all men who take part in illegal wars at the behest of their state. Those who commit crimes we must do,” Xanthaki wrote.

It is unclear to what extent the IOC will follow its advice ahead of Tuesday’s board meeting. It should discuss “solidarity with Ukraine, the sanctions against Russia and Belarus and the status of athletes from these countries.”

The IOC’s first advice to sports organizations within days of the outbreak of war in February was to exclude athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus, which was using itself as a launching pad for the Russian invasion and will soon destroy Moscow’s nuclear weapons. host.

The IOC called Russia’s “extremely serious violation” of the Olympic Truce for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, plus the integrity and security of sporting events.

Since January, the IOC has been pushing to find a way to reintegrate Russians and Belarusians into world sport. It referred to advice from Xanthaki and another UN expert that excluding athletes based on their passport alone would be discrimination against their human rights.

Xanthaki briefed members of official athlete panels from most national Olympic bodies, including Ukraine, on Friday in a two-hour talk hosted by the IOC.

The Ukrainians “completely disagreed with my analysis,” she acknowledged in a Twitter exchange, adding that participating athletes from countries in the South agreed with her.

“It makes no sense in terms of sport,” Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, a two-time Olympian, told The Associated Press on Monday about Xanthaki’s take on the appeal and the difficulty of proving an athlete’s ties to war crimes.

Pictured: A Ukrainian artillery unit pauses as it waits for orders to fire on Russian troops in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, where Galinichev is believed to have been killed

Pictured: A local resident stands next to a car in front of a residential building badly damaged during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, in the settlement of Toshkivka, Luhansk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, March 24

“Should we make a documentary about how he commits a crime?” said Heraskevych, who attracted attention at last year’s Beijing Games by holding up a “No War in Ukraine” sign after his race.

The IOC spoke on Monday with representatives of Olympic sports bodies who will themselves decide on the conditions for athletes to participate in their upcoming events and define neutrality.

A strong position against the IOC was taken last week by world athletics, which refuses to admit Russians or Belarusians “for the foreseeable future.”

The final decisions about Russian athletes participating in the Paris Games still lie with the IOC. Article 44.3 of the Olympic Charter states: ‘No one has the right to participate in the Olympic Games.’