A retired US Army Special Forces soldier has been identified as an American citizen who was killed by Russian artillery in the besieged city of Bakhmut this week, according to a close friend and founder of a nonprofit group operating in Ukraine.
Nicholas Maimer served more than 20 years in uniform before retiring in 2018, according to his service record.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Perry Blackburn said that Maimer was in a building in Bakhmut that was hit by artillery fire.
Blackburn stated that they later learned the building had collapsed, and the Ukrainians who were with him believed he was either trapped in the collapsed building or killed by Russian artillery fire.
“They got to where they were, and the artillery started hitting heavy and the building started to collapse. That’s when most of the Americans and Ukrainians there managed to escape. Unfortunately, Maymer wasn’t able to escape,” said a friend of Maymer’s, an American in Ukraine.
A video released by a Russian private military company, Wagner, emerged showing the group’s commander inspecting a dead body and showing what he claimed were American identification documents.
And the leader of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says in the video that the American was “replying” to them when he was killed in Bakhmut, so we will hand him over to the United States of America, and we will put him in a coffin, and cover him with the American flag with respect because he did not die in his bed, but died in the war.
