A funeral service has taken place in Kyiv today for a former US Marine killed while serving alongside Ukrainian forces.
Ethan Hertweck’s family and friends said the 21-year-old had given his life fighting for freedom.
Hertweck, from California, travelled to Ukraine soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, initially assisting some of the millions of women and children who were fleeing the country in the earliest days of the war.
After returning to the US for several months, the US Marine Corps veteran travelled back to Ukraine to receive a combat medical licence, and trained Ukrainian troops before joining a combat unit as a medic.
In December 2023 he was guarding a military bunker in the eastern industrial region of the Donbas when Russian forces overtook his unit’s position.
When one of his unit was wounded, Hertweck attempted to drag him back to the safety of the bunker but was hit by gunfire in the process and died soon after.
At the funeral service in Kyiv’s Maidan Square, Hertweck’s mother, father, sister and brother were presented with Ukrainian and US flags as part of a military honours ceremony.
Leslie Hertweck told those gathered that her son had died in a “fight for freedom”.
“He was taken too young and he died a true hero,” she said through tears.
“I’m a very proud mom of what he did, that he came here for your people, for the country of Ukraine, to fight for freedom. And that’s what Ethan stood for, was freedom.”
