He was killed on January 19 in fierce combat near Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region.
Antosiak, who studied in the United Kingdom, joined the Ukrainian army’s 25th Airborne Brigade last year, serving in a drone unit. A solemn ceremony took place on Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti), followed by a funeral service at the nearby St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral. Family members, soldiers from the 25th Brigade, Polish diplomats in Kyiv, and local representatives of the Polish community attended.
“We didn’t know he planned to come here,” his parents told reporters, explaining that he had originally intended to join the British military after graduating from a school in Cambridge. Instead, he traveled to Ukraine without telling them. “He was proud to help people here,” Antosiak’s father said. “In his first letter from Ukraine, he apologized for deceiving us for the first time in his life, but that was his plan.”
Ukraine’s top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, awarded the soldier a Certificate of Merit and Courage, which was presented to Antosiak’s parents. They plan to bury him in the Polish city of Łowicz.
(jh)
Source: Polskie Radio 24