Maksym Kagal: Kickboxing champion killed defending Mariupol from Russian forces

Kagal was fighting as part of the controversial Azov special forces unit, which includes neo-Nazi elements

A Ukrainian kickboxing champion has died while fighting Russian troops in Mariupol, his coach said on Sunday.

Maksym Kagal, 30, was fighting Russian troops as a part of the controversial Azov special forces unit to defend the city of Mariupol, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting since the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Since the war broke out, many Ukrainian civilians have joining the armed forces to defend their country.

Announcing Kagal’s death in a Facebook post, his coach Oleh Skyrta said: “Unfortunately, the war takes the best. On 25 March 2022, while defending the city of Mariupol as part of the Azov Separate Special Forces Unit, Maxim ‘Piston’ Kagal [was killed].

Mr Skyrta described him as “the first world kickboxing champion from the glorious city of Kremenchug, the first world champion among adults in the team of Ukraine, and just an honest and decent person”.

“Sleep well, brother, rest in peace to you, we will avenge you,” Mr Skyrta added.

The Azov regiment is a far-right all-volunteer infantry unit whose members are largely ultra-nationalists, according to Al Jazeera. The unit was formed in 2014 to fight against pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, and its success on the battlefield led to it being officially integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine on 12 November 2014, a few months after it helped recaptured Mariupol from Russian-backed separatists.

The group has not denied that its members have extremist “personal views” but deny that the unit as a whole adheres to Nazi ideology. In 2015, spokesperson Andriy Diachenko told USA Today that “only 10 to 20 per cent” of the group’s members were Nazis.

Its role in fighting to defend eastern Ukraine has been seized upon and exaggerated by Russian state media and the Kremlin to discredit Ukraine’s military, with Russia’s defence ministry referring to “the Nazi battalions in Mariupol”. When he launched the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Vladimir Putin said one of his goals was the “de-Nazification” of the country.

Kagal, a resident of Kremenchug, became a world champion as a part of the Ukrainian national team, according to Ukraine’s Telegraf.

He had won the World Kickboxing Championship ISKA in 2020.

Kagal’s death in Mariupol comes as the city continues to see heavy fighting amid mounting casualties.

UN officials said on Friday that there is evidence of mass graves in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Matilda Bogner, head of a UN human rights team currently in the country, said: “We have got increasing information on mass graves that are there.”

“The extent of civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian objects strongly suggests that the principles of distinction, of proportionality, the rule on feasible precautions and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks have been violated.”

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