Efforts are being made to recover the body of Kyle Porter from the war zone for an eventual return to Calgary
A Sri Lankan military volunteer said in a few hours he would make another attempt under enemy fire to recover the body of a Calgary native killed by Russian artillery shells amid the Ukraine war’s bloodiest battle.
And a Calgary aid worker said he’s ready to transport the body of soldier Kyle Porter — one of two Canadians killed together at Bakhmut on April 26 — from the war zone for an eventual return to his hometown.
Speaking from a location 30 kilometres from the front line at Bakhmut, a member of Ukraine’s International Legion said Porter, 27, and Cole Zelenco, 21, of St. Catharines, Ont., were killed by direct hits from Russian artillery on their bunker.
The men, who’d become close friends, were fighting to keep open a land corridor for Ukrainian forces defending the last parts of the eastern Ukrainian city they still hold after nine months of intense Russian assaults.
“They were not supposed to go there but they got called up in midday, they were on standby,” said the man who goes by Capt. Raj, as well as the call name The Dentist.
“It’s war — you have to expect it. It could be me next time . . . he was a really good fighter.”
Raj said soon after the two men attached to Ukraine’s 92nd Mechanized Bridgade were killed, he was part of a team sent to the bombed-out bunker located 385 metres from Russian troops to recover their bodies, but had to retreat after only retrieving Zelenco.
“We managed to get Cole but got some gunfire and a drone located us and pinpointed our position,” he said.
“I had to make the decision for the people alive (to return) but I hope for a more positive answer (Tuesday).”
He refused to describe the recovery attempts as acts of bravery.
“It’s not about being brave, it’s about brotherhood and my brother lying there,” said Raj.
The two deaths are believed to be the fourth and fifth Canadian volunteer soldiers killed in action during the 14-month war.
Both men, he said, were Canadian military veterans, while Porter had also worked recently with South African forces and on a training mission in the Netherlands.
Porter, who’d been trained as a medic, had been in Ukraine since March 2022 serving in training and rescue roles, and had joined Raj’s unit in December, said the captain.
His fatal visit to the front line was his first time there, said his commander.
Porter, said Raj, was intent on creating an ambulance unit for his group.
“We were planning to bring down an ambulance without relying on anyone else, so we can spend more time saving our guys,” he said.
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“That’s what Kyle’s plans were.”
Knowing the grave risk he was taking, Porter had composed a letter detailing directives for his funeral, which would have a distinct Canadian military flavour, “even how bagpipes would be played, with a Canadian-style tombstone with a regimental logo,” said Raj.
Zelenco, he said, was also grimly aware of the dangers he faced in resisting relentless Russian efforts to capture Bakhmut.
“He always said, ‘I might get a glorious death,’ and he got a glorious death,” said Raj, who plans on accompanying Porter’s body to Calgary later this month.
With Zelenco’s body already in Kharkiv, Calgary humanitarian aid worker Paul Hughes said he’s heading south to the Bakhmut area on Tuesday to transport Porter’s body and surviving members of his unit to Kharkiv.
Hughes said he’d met Porter once during an earlier part of the war, and that Ukrainians now view the two foreign volunteers with huge admiration.
“They’re now heroes for Ukraine,” said Hughes, adding that realization doesn’t diminish the pain of his upcoming mission.
“I didn’t want to have to do this for any Canadian . . . Porter is less than half my age,” he said.
Hughes said he’s been in touch with Canadian Embassy officials in Ukraine to expedite the return of the men’s bodies to Canada.
And the Calgarian said he’s bringing along a Canadian flag to honour Porter when he drives his charity’s ambulance to the Bakhmut area.
“From everything I’ve been hearing, those guys were great ambassadors for Canada,” said Hughes.
Hughes had been assigned to help evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the Bakhmut fighting last month but the unit to which he was attached was never called up.
Source: Calgary Herald
