Ukrainian female weightlifting champion turned deadly sniper dies during combat mission on the frontline

A UKRAINIAN weightlifting champion has been killed while fighting against Russia on the frontlines.

Expert sniper Nina Pashkevych, 47, tragically died on a combat mission in the war-torn Donetsk region.

Ukrainian sniper and weightlifting champion Nina Pashkevych has been killed in Ukraine

Nina was also a champion weightlifter

East2WestNina won the Ukrainian Weightlifting Championship back in April after returning from the war to compete[/caption]

Nina won the Ukrainian Weightlifting Championship back in April after returning from the war to compete.

She was also awarded the honour of being a Ukrainian master of sport after winning over 100 awards in her home country.

The Zdolbuniv city administration in the Rivno region announced her passing with a touching tribute.

It read: “It is with indescribable pain that we inform you that sniper Nina Pashkevich died while performing a combat mission in Donetsk region.

“She will be forever 47. May she always be remembered.”

Nina first volunteered to fight for Ukraine shortly after Vladimir Putin‘s invasion across the border in February 2022.

She rose up the ranks due to her athletic prowess and became known as a deadly sniper as well as a combat medic on the frontline.

Details of how she died are yet to be made public with her funeral being held today.

Nina is believed to be the seventh female Ukrainian sniper to be killed during the brutal invasion, according to Russian officials.

It comes just months after a mother, turned elite sniper, also lost her life in the war.

Ekaterina ‘Whiskey’ Shinkarenko, 30, was gunned down by Putin’s troops in a brave final stand off behind enemy lines.

The highly decorated professional cyclist had been honoured with Ukraine’s Order of Courage, General Staff Golden Cross, and Cross of Valour.

Putin first launched his invasion expecting to steamroll the much smaller state in days.

But now more than 900 days later Putin’s forces remain bogged down and stuck in a fierce battle for territory.

Ukraine and Russia are locked in a brutal war of attrition – but Putin has a seemingly endless supply of manpower and weapons.

Vlad has lost more than 630,000 troops and more than 10,000 armoured vehicles – yet his war machine grinds on.

Ukraine seized a huge swath of Kursk in recent month but Russia is feared to be making gains elsewhere.

Kyiv continues to call for more Western support, with the defeat of Ukraine meaning Russia would be right on Nato’s doorstep.

And it is feared Putin would seek to seize more territory from former Soviet states as he dreams of building a new Russian empire.

The war in Ukraine

VLADIMIR Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine began 10 years ago in February 2014.

The dictator’s forces occupied and annexed Crimea – despite international outcry – claiming it as Russian land.

They supported pro-Russian forces fighting in the Donbas regions and seized towns in the east of the region.

Eight years of bloody conflict followed as Putin’s armies forced themselves into areas of Ukraine, claiming they were Russian territory.

Then in February 2022, Russia launched a large-scale invasion and began to take more land by force.

Putin described it as a a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine.

In the two and a half years since, Putin’s troops have forced the people of Ukraine to live under occupation in Crimea, the Donbas and Luhansk.

The bloody war has seen Russia lose more than half a million soldiers, Ukraine claims, along with tens thousands of vehicles and hundreds of aircraft.

Kyiv’s forces have fought a brave and impressive battle, holding their own against Russia’s much larger forces and keeping them at bay along much of the border.

In August 2024 Ukraine even invade Russian territory, bursting into Kursk and humiliating Putin with impressive gains along a new frontline.