Thirty-two Ukrainian prisoners, along with the body of an Israeli citizen, returned to Ukraine in an exchange of prisoners of war with Russia on Tuesday, a senior Ukrainian official said.
"Among the freed are officers, sergeants and soldiers of (Ukraine's) Armed Forces. All of them were in places where fierce fighting was going on. Many of these people were considered missing," Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president's staff, wrote on Telegram.
Yermak said Ukraine had also received the body of Israeli citizen Dmytro Fialka, who he said had volunteered to fight for Ukraine.
Yermak noted that the deceased Israeli had been living in Ukraine for the last two years, working as a children's football coach at the Dynamo club (Lviv).
The head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak reported that 32 Ukrainian fighters and the body of a murdered Israeli citizen had been returned from #Russian captivity. pic.twitter.com/uHPjhUUGqD
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 11, 2022
"He fought for Ukraine, it was here that he met his love – a woman with whom they had children. He went to the front as a volunteer," he said.
"He fought for Ukraine, it was here that he met his love – a woman with whom they had children. He went to the front as a volunteer,"
Andriy Yermak
Who was Dmytro Fialka
At the age of 16, Fialka moved to Israel and served in the IDF, participating in the battles of the second Lebanon war in 2006. He worked as a coach for the Maccabi youth team in Be'er Sheva, where he successfully proved himself as a coach.
In 2015, he returned to Lviv to take care of his grandmother, and started working as a coach at DYUFC Lokomotiv Lviv.
After the unification of Lokomotiv and Opor in 2017, Fialka started working as a head coach at Dynamo Lviv DYUFA and with the U-19 team.
From 2021, he worked as a coach at the Youth Football Club FC Lviv, where he coached the U-16 team, with which he reached the semifinals of the Winter Cup of Ukraine at the end of February.
"Dmytro Fialka was one of the first who went to defend our state with weapons in his hands after the attack of the Russian invaders," reports the press service of FC "Dynamo" Lviv. "When the choice arose to defend his country, the football coach went to the front without hesitation."
Dmytro Fialka, 39, left behind a wife and two children.