A promising teenage sambo champion was reportedly killed during Russia’s airstrikes on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy earlier this week.
Artyom Priymenko, 16, was killed along with his entire family during a nighttime bombing raid that occurred Monday. He died alongside his father, Vitaly, mother, Ekaterina, paternal grandmother and two younger brothers, Egor and Kirill. Fifteen other people were killed in the attack.
“This is a great sorrow for the family of sambo wrestlers, his relatives, and for all of us,” his coach Evgeny Leonenko said. “Artyom was a multiple winner of the Ukrainian Sambo Championships. He won a place in the Ukrainian national team for the World Cup in the Netherlands. He was very promising.”
Priymenko was reportedly killed hours before a humanitarian corridor was opened to allow civilians to evacuate the city.
According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 550 civilians have been killed and another 957 wounded since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. The office noted that the figure likely underestimates the actual fatalities.
Ukrainian officials in the coastal city of Mariupol reported than 1,300 people have been killed in the city bombarded by Russian airstrikes, along with 3000 others who were injured in the attacks. The figures cannot be independently verified.
It is worth noting that sambo is one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s preferred sports. He previously vowed to make sambo an Olympic sport and has regularly attended the annual combat sambo event S-70 league.
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