A GRIEVING mum gazes at the lifelike monument depicting her war hero son — executed by Russians after defiantly declaring “Glory to Ukraine”.
Oleksandr Matsievskiy was seen smoking a cigarette after being made to dig his own grave in woods, before slumping in a hail of gunfire near Bakhmut in December last year.
Kyiv blamed "brutal and brazen" Russians for his death, as did his mother Paraska Demchuk, 68.
"He would have taken all of them with him if he had a grenade," she said.
"He would say to me, 'Mum, I will never let them capture me'," she said through tears. "He wouldn't just bandy words about. It was on the inside, it was like a core inside him," she said.
Ukraine has opened a criminal investigation into the death of Matsievskiy, who was quickly talked of as a hero on social media, where many supporters posted the words "Heroyam Slava," or "Glory to the Heroes."
Oleksandr’s grisly execution was filmed after he went missing near the “meat grinder” frontline of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
A Russian soldier is heard saying: "Die you b*****d," as gunshots ring out after the Ukrainian hero said his last words.
The war crime is another grisly atrocity among thousands already being investigated.
He was posthumously awarded a medal by President Volodymyr Zelensky and now a memorial to him has been unveiled in the capital Kyiv.
This comes as the country’s first lady has warned Ukrainians are in “mortal danger” if the West abandons them.
Olena Zelenska said her people will be left to die if the world stops sending financial aid in the fight against Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion.
It comes after Republican senators in the US blocked a bill to provide nearly £50 billion in fresh support to Ukraine.
