Idaho US Army veteran Dane Partridge was killed this week while fighting for freedom in Ukraine, his family announced Thursday night.
Dane was in a coma after being critically injured by a Russian tank blast while fighting in Ukraine and was being treated at Kyiv military hospital, his father Dennis wrote on Facebook on Saturday, but a few days later, on Tuesday, his family announced that Dane was taken off life support.
Dane, who documented his journey to Ukraine on social media, landed in Germany on April 26, made his way to Poland the next day, and arrived in Ukraine in late April. At that point, his public social media posts ended for operations and security reasons, but he occasionally messaged his sister.
He was among the Americans that remained in Ukraine even after the US Embassy’s security alert in August urging US citizens to depart Ukraine as soon as possible.
Several Americans have now died in Ukraine so far, including American volunteer soldiers Luke “Skywalker” Lucyszyn and Bryan Young in July, video journalist Brent Renaud and Minnesotan Jimmy Hill, Stephen Zabielski who was killed in May in Zaporizhzhia, and US Marine veteran Willy Joseph Cancel, who died during a battle in April.
A few US Army soldiers are detained by Russian troops and are awaiting trial.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday demanded the International Committee of the Red Cross to access the Russian “concentration camp” in the Russian-occupied city of Olenivka where Ukrainian POWs are being held.
Noting that he met Thursday with Red Cross representatives to discuss the process, Zelensky stressed that the Red Cross is not a club with privileges where they get paid and enjoy life and suggested that their mission follow the model of the IAEA that sent a mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine earlier this year.
According to a Telegram post from the head of Zelensky’s office Andrii Yermak, Ukraine reportedly gave the Red Cross a three-day deadline to send a mission to Olenivka.
Ever since July’s shelling hit the prison complex, the international organization has been trying to get access to the Olenivka in order to assess the prisoners’ treatment.