Two Canadian nationals have been killed in action around Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk Oblast that has become the focus of the longest and one of the bloodiest battles since the full-scale invasion began.
CBC News reported that one of the fighters said before his death that the conditions on the front line were like a "meat grinder."
A 27-year-old Kyle Porter of Calgary (Alberta), and a 21-year-old Cole Zelenco of St. Catharines (Ontario), were both serving with Ukraine's International Legion, which was attached to the 92nd Mechanised Brigade.
Porter had been in contact with CBC News in the days leading up to his death. He had exchanged several text messages and shared his anxiety about the difficult conditions at the front. "Let me figure out how I am going to survive the next few days…" he wrote three days before he was killed, according to CBC.
An unofficial count by CBC News would make them the fourth and fifth Canadians to be killed in the war since Russia's invasion in February 2022.