(28 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv, Ukraine – 28 February 2025
1. Ukrainian servicemen carrying coffin of American volunteer medic Ethan Hertweck during funeral ceremony
2. Ukrainian servicemen placing Hertweck’s coffin down
3. Comrades of Hertweck next to the coffin
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Leslie Hertweck, mother of American volunteer medic Ethan Hertweck:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
“He was stubborn, he was strong, he was serious, but he loved and had a soft heart, and for that we are thankful, we know that we will see him again in heaven, and for that that gives me and my family consolation that we know that. We will miss him, but we will see you in heaven Ethan, as you’re with my mom, and all those who have gone before us. Slava Ukraine."
5. Close of Hertweck’s father, John Hertweck, and mother Leslie Hertweck mourning during the funeral ceremony
6. Hertweck’s parents walking to the microphone
7. Leslie Hertweck receiving and holding Ukrainian flag
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jay Andrus, 25, U.S. Marine veteran who had trained in Ukraine with Ethan Hertweck:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
"He genuinely really wanted to help people. Because when he first came, he did, I think he did like medical and training and stuff like that, he didn’t go fighting straight away, so it kind of like showed he actually cared about, you know, the effort here.”
9. Wide of serviceman saying last goodbyes
10. Mid of Hertweck’s comrades hugging members of the family
STORYLINE:
A funeral service for a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who died while serving alongside Ukrainian forces was held in central Kyiv on Friday, where family and friends said the 21-year-old had given his life fighting for freedom.
Ethan Hertweck, a California native, traveled to Ukraine soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, initially assisting some of the millions of women and children who were fleeing the country in the earliest days of the war.
After returning to the United States for several months, he went back to Ukraine to receive a combat medical license and trained Ukrainian troops before himself joining a combat unit as a medic.
At the funeral service for Hertweck on Kyiv’s Maidan Square on Friday, his mother told those gathered that her son, who was killed while on duty as a combat medic in December 2023 in the eastern industrial region known as Donbas, had died in a “fight for freedom.”
Leslie, Hertweck said on Friday that her son was “stubborn, he was strong, he was serious. But he loved and had a soft heart.”
“We know that we will miss him. But we will see you in heaven, Ethan, as you’re with my mom and all those who’ve gone before us,” she said. “Slava Ukraine.”
In December 2023, the 21-year-old was guarding a military bunker in Donbas when Russian forces overtook his unit’s position.
One member of his unit was wounded, and while attempting to drag him back to the safety of the bunker, Hertweck himself was hit.
He died around an hour later.
Hertweck’s family and fellow servicemen worked for months to retrieve his remains, but he remained missing in action.
Then, in December, his body was part of a swap between the Ukrainian and Russian militaries, and he was identified by his DNA.
Jay Andrus, 25, another U.S. Marine veteran who had trained in Ukraine with Hertweck, said his friend "genuinely really wanted to help people."
AP Video shot by Alex Babenko
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