Four-time world kickboxing champion Vitalii Merinov, a Ukrainian national, died this week in hospital as a result of injuries sustained while fighting Russian forces occupying his country in the eastern region of Lugansk, Ukrainian media reported today. Merinov thus joins the large list of elite athletes who have died in the war in Ukraine since the conflict began.
Merinov had joined the Ukrainian army as a volunteer just after the Russian army began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year. After being wounded in the leg, the athlete from the Ivano-Frankivsk region in western Ukraine returned to the front and continued to fight until he was mortally wounded.
His loss has been confirmed by the mayor of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, who reported that the four-time world champion was married and had a two-year-old daughter. Since he joined the Ukrainian forces to fight against the invading troops, Merinov shared moments from his life fighting in the Ukrainian war through social networks.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, at least 262 athletes have died as a result of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, one of Kiev's arguments for requesting the exclusion of Russian athletes from the next Olympic Games to be held in Paris in 2024.
In fact, a few days ago another elite athlete, Maksym Kagal, kickboxing world champion in 2014 and a benchmark for the country in this discipline, also died in combat defending the city of Mariupol.
