Funeral held in Ukraine for American man killed in action

Friday, International Legion of Ukraine soldiers said goodbye to an American combat veteran who was slain a month earlier in the tough battle to keep Bakhmut from succumbing to Russia.

At Chris Campbell’s funeral at Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Cathedral, Ukrainian regular army troops carried his Ukrainian-flag-draped coffin. About three dozen International Legion members watched.

Campbell’s Ukrainian wife, Ivanna Sanina, received the folded flag.

The Florida native is one of nine Americans killed in Ukraine, including one last month in Bakhmut. Russian gunfire killed two Canadian volunteers April 26.

Bakhmut, 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Donetsk, has been one of the worst battles of the war. For about eight months.

It may have killed thousands, but neither side has said how many. Russia controls much of the city.

Campbell joined Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s International Legion of Ukraine, a group of foreign volunteers with combat expertise.
Sanina, a volunteer aiding frontline troops, said she first met him during a wartime volunteer event.

“Why are you here?” “It was our first meeting, and he said, ‘Because it is right,’” she told reporters emotionally, calling him “the bravest man I’ve ever known.”

Two days before his death in Kharkiv, she saw him. She saw how hard Bakhmut had been on him.

“He changed a lot,” she claimed. “Everyone sees horrors.”