‘Da Vinci’ hero of Ukraine is laid to rest after death in battle
HUNDREDS of mourners including Ukraine’s army chief and foreign dignitaries gathered on Kyiv’s Independence Square yesterday to pay their respects to Ukraine’s youngest battalion commander, known as Da Vinci.
Dmytro Kotsyubaylo, 27, was killed in the battle for Bakhmut on Mar 7.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who presented Kotsyubaylo with the Hero of Ukraine medal in 2021, called him a “human symbol” of courage.
“He was one of the youngest heroes of Ukraine; one of those whose personal history, character and courage forever became the history, character and courage of Ukraine. He was killed in a battle near Bakhmut – a battle for Ukraine,” he said in an address announcing the death.
Mourners including Sanna Marin, Finnish prime minister, bowed their heads or knelt as a bugler played the Last Post and a military guard of honour carried his coffin.
A day of mourning was also declared in his home region, where mourners bearing black flags knelt by road sides.
Kotsyubaylo joined Right Sektor, the most prominent of several radical nationalist groups to emerge from the revolution, in 2014 he joined the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, the group’s paramilitary battalion.
Adopting the call sign Da Vinci he was quickly recognised as a talented soldier. After being wounded near Donetsk airport he was promoted to company commander and in 2017 put in charge of a new company called the Wolves of Da Vinci. The unit later expanded to become the battalion he led until he died.