Two Canadians fighting for Ukraine killed in action in Bakhmut
CTV
Two Canadians who enlisted to fight for the Ukrainian military are being remembered for their bravery after being killed in Bakhmut, fighting in one of the war's bloodiest battles.
Two Canadians who enlisted to fight for the Ukrainian military are being remembered for their bravery after being killed in action last week.
Cole Zelenco, a 21-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., and 27-year-old Kyle Porter of Calgary, Alta. had been defending the city of Bakhmut for weeks, fighting in one of the war's bloodiest battles. Last Wednesday, they were killed in a bunker under heavy Russian artillery fire.
Both men fought with Ukraine's 92nd Mechanized Brigade and were close friends, being the only two Canadians in their combat group.
"Cole was a really special person. He had a really finely tuned sense of justice for somebody so young and he was a protector," Zelenco's mother, Lynn Baxter told CTV News on Tuesday.
That sense of justice brought Zelenco, who had previously served in the Canadian Armed Forces, to enlist to fight in Ukraine. This was his second tour, as he had been back in the warzone since the end of October.
"He felt he had a lot of work still left to do there. A lot of unfinished business. A lot of people still to take care of there. He was just thinking of other people the whole time," his sister Elena Zelenco told CTV News.
Porter first made the trip to Ukraine as a search and rescue worker, having served as a medic with the Canadian Armed Forces. Last year, he told CTV News Calgary he felt he had an obligation to offer his services in Ukraine after seeing footage of the war on television.
