A former US Marine, Cooper “Harris” Andrews, 26, was killed on the outskirts of Bakhmut. 

Andrews, from Cleveland, Ohio, was hit by a mortar, his mother, Willow Andrews said, likely on April 19 on the so-called “Road of Life” – a rare access road into Bakhmut used by the Ukrainian military to resupply their forces but also evacuate civilians.

Andrew’s body has yet to be recovered, she said, owing to the ongoing fighting around the city, whose outsized symbolic importance has led to intense fighting as Moscow desperately tries to seize it.

Andrews worked for an activist group known as the Resistance Committee, according to their social media statements. They said he was killed assisting the evacuation of civilians from the city. Andrews left Cleveland, Ohio in November and joined the Foreign Legion in Ukraine, a group of foreign fighters helping the Ukrainian military. His contract ended in March, Mrs. Andrews said, and he decided to stay on.