KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A funeral service was held in Kyiv on Friday for a U.S. Marine Corps veteran killed while serving alongside Ukrainian forces. Family and friends said 21-year-old Ethan Hertweck had given his life fighting for freedom.

Hertweck, from California, traveled to Ukraine soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, initially assisting some of the millions of women and children who were fleeing the country in the earliest days of the war.

After returning to the United States for several months, he returned to Ukraine to receive a combat medical license, and trained Ukrainian troops before himself joining a combat unit as a medic.

In December 2023 he was guarding a military bunker in the eastern industrial region of the Donbas when Russian forces overtook his unit’s position. When one of his unit was wounded, Hertweck attempted to drag him back to the safety of the bunker but was hit by gunfire in the process. He died soon after.

At the funeral service in Kyiv’s Maidan Square, Hertweck's mother, father, sister and brother were presented with Ukrainian and U.S. flags as part of a military honors ceremony.

‘He came here for your people’

Leslie Hertweck told those gathered that her son had died in a “fight for freedom.”

“He was taken too young and he died a true hero,” she said through tears. “I’m a very proud mom of what he did, that he came here for your people, for the country of Ukraine, to fight for freedom. And that’s what Ethan stood for, was freedom.”

She described her son as “stubborn, he was strong, he was serious. But he loved and had a soft heart.”

“We know that we will miss him. But we will see you in heaven, Ethan, as you’re with my mom and all those who’ve gone before us,” she said. “Slava Ukraini.”

Hertweck was initially classified as missing in action and his family and fellow servicemen worked for months to retrieve his remains, which were believed to be behind Russian lines after the territory near the city of Avdiivka was captured by Moscow’s forces.

Finally, in December 2024, his body was part of a swap between the Ukrainian and Russian militaries. With the assistance of the RT Weatherman Foundation, a group that provides support and legal aid to families of soldiers killed in Ukraine, he was identified by his DNA.

His family plans to repatriate him to the United States and lay him to rest in his native California.

‘He’s going home, like every Marine should’

Jay Andrus, 25, a U.S. Marine veteran who trained in Ukraine with Hertweck, said the period his friend was listed as missing was difficult for family and friends to bear.

“It’s good that we got his remains back because it kind of haunts you knowing that your friend is out there in the dirt and you don’t know where he is," Andrus said. “He’s back and he’s going home, like every Marine should.”

He added that Hertweck, like so many foreign soldiers that have fought for Ukraine during the war, "genuinely, really wanted to help people.”

“It’s clear as day: a country is being invaded, innocent people are dying, women and children,” Andrus said. “You’re just going to sit there with the training and the lifestyle that you’re used to, watching the news and do nothing about it? I understand why (Hertweck) came, that’s the reason why I came too.”

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