Eighteen-year-old Ukrainian basketball player Artem Kozachenko died in the hospital on Feb. 20 after being stabbed in Germany alongside his teammate last week, according to the ART Giants basketball club for which both players played.
Kozachenko and his 17-year-old teammate Volodymyr Yermakov were reportedly stabbed in the street in Oberhausen on Feb. 10. Yermakov died in the hospital due to his injuries. Kozachenko was placed in intensive care after the attack.
"Artem has been in intensive care at the hospital since the brutal attack in Oberhausen. Unfortunately, over the past few days, his condition deteriorated so significantly that doctors could do nothing more for him," ART Giants wrote on Instagram.
The incident began at 8:15 p.m. local time as a confrontation between two groups of young adults at a bus station on Willy-Brandt-Platz, the German media outlet Focus reported. Four people, including Yermakov and Kozachenko, suffered knife wounds.
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko said the German police detained the person suspected of murdering Yermakov on Feb. 12. The German broadcaster DW reported on Feb. 16 that three more suspects were detained.
No further information has been provided.
According to the Kyiv Basketball Federation (FBK), the men's attackers may have been motivated by hatred against Ukraine. However, the German police reportedly do not believe the attack had a political motive, t-online reported.
Ukrainian consular representatives in Dusseldorf held talks with local police and stressed the need to carry out the investigation as soon as possible to bring perpetrators to justice, Nikolenko said.
John Roberts
