WASHINGTON (AP) — An American was killed in a Russian attack on the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, where he was seeking medical help for his partner. Jim Hill’s sister announced his death on Thursday.
“My brother Jimmy Hill was killed yesterday in Chernihiv, Ukraine. He was standing in line for bread along with several other people when they were shot dead by the Russian military,” his sister Cheryl Hill Gordon wrote on Facebook. “His body was found in the street by the local police.”
Ukrainian officials said 10 people were killed Wednesday in Chernihiv while queuing for bread.
The Chernihiv police and the US State Department confirmed the death of the American, but did not establish his identity. Hill became at least the second US citizen to be killed in the conflict, following the killing of journalist and filmmaker Brent Reno last week.
In poignant Facebook posts in the weeks before his death, Hill described the “indiscriminate bombing” of the beleaguered city and joked about wanting to appear “foolish” if the Russians took it.
Under his photo, he wrote on March 8: “I have been unshaven for 10 days. I’m actually trying to look as old and imbecile as possible (not too much) in case I get caught. I’m working on my Rain Man accent on ‘Oh Boy’…”
Hill, a native of Eveleth, Minnesota, who lived in Driggs, Idaho, introduced himself as a lecturer at the universities of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and Warsaw, Poland. He said that he was in Chernihiv with his partner for her treatment.
“We stay on the 3rd floor in the hospital. Most of the patients are in the basement of the bomb shelter. But it is cold and there is no internet,” he wrote on February 26, two days after the invasion began.
Four days later he said: “No one in Chernihiv is safe. Indiscriminate bombardment. …Ukrainian troops hold the city, but are surrounded. Here is the siege. Nobody enters. Nobody comes out.
At least 53 people have been taken to morgues over the past 24 hours as a result of massive Russian airstrikes and ground shelling in Chernihiv, local governor Vyacheslav Chaus told Ukrainian television on Thursday.