Ethan Hertweck, a 21-year old ex-US Marine-turned-mercenary from California, has been killed while fighting on the side of Kiev regime near Adveyevka, a city in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
The US gun-for-hire arrived in Ukraine in mid-2023 as an instructor with a Ukraine-based private military outfit called Trident Defense Initiative, only to be later spotted fighting as part of the 131st Recon Battalion.
Following the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict in February 2022, hundreds of mercenaries from North America and Europe flocked to Kiev’s banners, lured by the promise of blood money - heedless of Russia’s warnings that foreign mercs will return home in body bags.
Months later, the luckiest and smartest of these rent-a-thugs saw the writing on the wall and fled to wherever they came from, while many of the others met their end at the hands of Russian troops.