The battle for Bakhmut claimed the life of the youngest battalion commander in the Ukrainian military, a man renowned for his gallantry and a long-time Russian targe

The battle for Bakhmut claimed the life of the youngest battalion commander in the Ukrainian military, a man renowned for his gallantry and a long-time Russian target.

A leader of a group accused by Moscow of having neo-Nazi and fascist ties, Dmytro Kotsyubaylo, was killed by shelling close to the Donbas city, which has been the target of a protracted Russian operation for months.

Kotsyubaylo received the Order of the Golden Star and the designation "Hero of Ukraine" from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year. In a tribute, Zelensky said: "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 slain in a conflict for Ukraine close to Bakhmut.

Kotsyubaylo, a 27-year-old leader of the Pravy Sektor [Right Sector] group who went by the codename "Da Vinci," rose to prominence in Ukraine for his role in the seven-year conflict against Moscow-backed rebels in the east. The current fight had significantly improved his standing in frontline combat.

The young soldier's demise benefits Russian propaganda. According to one website that backs the Kremlin, "A high-ranking Ukrainian nationalist has been put to death. We're referring to Dmytro Kotsyubaylo, also known by his call sign "Da Vinci," who is a fervent fan and a top figure in the "Right-Sector," a group that is outlawed in Russia and designated as a terrorist organization.

Following the widely reported murder of another Ukrainian soldier, Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, in Bakhmut, Kotsyubaylo passed away. The soldier can be heard saying "Glory to Ukraine!" in a video that has surfaced before his captors in Russia appear to execute him quickly.

The Russian military has surrounded Bakhmut, and the Ukrainian government has announced that it will not leave the area. The Russian military is being directed by soldiers from the Wagner mercenary group. Although the city of Donbas is largely regarded by Western military analysts as having little strategic relevance, it has been nearly completely devastated.

A senior Western security official highlighted this week that seizing control of Bakhmut would be "just a tiny tactical event" with no benefit "for either side". Yet according to President Zelensky, if the Russians were to take the city, they would also pose a threat to the remainder of the Donbas.

Within Ukraine's armed forces, concerns have been raised over the decision to keep troops in Bakhmut, with critics citing the failure to evacuate from Mariupol in a timely manner, where many were seized by the Russians when they took control of the southern city. Several soldiers were killed and hurt as a result of similar delays in the withdrawal from the eastern cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.

One of the most well-known and contentious armed groups to have evolved from the violent street brawls of the Maidan rallies, which toppled Ukraine's pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych's administration in 2014, is Pravy Sektor.

The organization went on to play a significant role in the subsequent fight against eastern rebels, becoming – in the process – hate figures for its Russian and Ukrainian rivals. Pravy Sektor was one of the top three most frequently cited groups in Russian media for the first six months of the war at the time, and the group was outlawed in Moscow.

Last year, as Vladimir Putin's invasion, began and the Russian president said that his nation was conducting a "special military operation," I spent some time with the group in the Donbas. At the time, one of the main goals of this operation was to "denazify" Ukraine.

The Pravy Sektor warriors echoed criticism of Mr. Putin's assertion that fascism was being eradicated from the larger Ukrainian and Western communities, saying it was one of the flimsy justifications used to start the war.

Initially, the group was a union of radical nationalist organizations. Some of these, including one going by the name of White Hammer, was later kicked out. Others, including Patriot of Ukraine, the paramilitary arm of the Social-National Assembly of the nation, allegedly abandoned the organization after it allegedly softened its radicalism.

Kotsyubaylo emphasized to me that every effort had been made to keep anyone who held racist, Nazi, or fascist ideas outside.

“We are nationalists; I am a nationalist. But we are not [like] some others, who are neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and all that stuff. In this unit we have Jews, Muslims, and Christians; you’ll not see anyone with a Nazi or fascist tattoo, or anything like that. We have volunteers from lots of different countries; we don’t mind where they come from, or their religion,” he said.

Kotsyubaylo adopted the name “Da Vinci” because of his admiration, during his days as an art student, for the Renaissance polymath. “I liked his imagination and invention, embracing new ideas. One can’t admire things like that and be an intolerant racist,” he said.

With his partner, Alina Mykhailova, a former activist and deputy councilor in Kyiv who also served on the front lines, Kotsyubaylo said his goal was to try to have a "normal life" after the war was finished.

Kotsyubaylo felt, however, that normal living would be impossible for people like him, as they would always be targeted by aggressive propaganda operations.

A wolf pup that he and his warriors had raised after its mother had been killed by hunters was one of the tales that sparked such a campaign. The unit adopted it as its mascot since its insignia features charging wolves. Kotsyubaylo said that the bones in the cage were from "Russian-speaking children" when a reporter from a local newspaper asked what the wolf was fed while he was at the unit's base. There were allegations in the Russian media that Ukraine had handed one of its greatest honors to a right-wing extremist who intended to feed his wolf the bones of Russian children after he received his award from Mr. Zelensky.

"Everyone could see it was a joke; it was definitely a prank. Kotsyubaylo argued, "I was attempting to make fun of the kind of ludicrous things they say about us, and this got turned into 'fact'.

He remarked, "I believe that helped the way they wanted to show us, a method to make people fear and detest each other. Our current conflict is not merely one of propaganda. We must accept that not everyone will escape from it alive because there will be a lot of fighting and deaths.

The death of nationalist Ukrainian commander ‘Da Vinci’ gives Russia a propaganda win

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