- A kickboxing champion, Maksym Kagal, was reportedly killed in a fight in Ukraine on Friday.
- His coach said in a Facebook post that Kagal died in Mariupol on March 25.
- The trainer added that he “died as part of the Special Destination Squad ‘Azov'”.
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Kickboxing champion Maksym Kagal was killed in combat on Friday while defending Ukraine from the ongoing Russian invasion in the city of Mariupol.
Kagal, 30, reportedly died as a member of the controversial Azov Special Forces – a battalion of up to 1,500 members that The Guardian, MSNBC and Al-Jazeera have frequently labeled as a far-right paramilitary group with some fighters neo-Nazi leanings.
“Unfortunately, war takes the best,” Kagal’s martial arts coach, Oleh Skyrta, said in a Facebook post.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, with Vladimir Putin trying to justify the aggression with the aim of “denazifying” the country.
In the weeks since, more than 10 million people have been displaced as several Ukrainian towns and cities have come under fire from Russian aggression. Thousands have died.
Skyrta said Kagal died on March 25 while “defending the city of Mariupol as part of Special Destination Squad ‘Azov’.”
The kickboxing coach then listed Kagal’s achievements as the first world champion kickboxer to come out of his gym. He called him “an honest and decent man”.
Skyrta concluded by remarking, “Rest in peace, brother… we will have our revenge on you.”
The Azov Special Forces was formed in 2014 as a volunteer militia. It was inducted into the National Guard later that year.
Although it denies ties to neo-Nazism, it has used controversial images and symbols associated with Nazism.
A battalion spokesman even told USA Today in 2015 that up to 20% of its members were Nazis.