It was with great sorrow that we received the news on Saturday 15 March that our friend Oleksij Savkevich had died on the front line on Tuesday 11 March. He had decided in September 2024 to join the Ukrainian army to defend his country from Russian aggression. His unit was defending the territories of south-eastern Ukraine.
The leaders of the association ‘Ad Pacem servandam – For Peace and Against War’ had been friends with Oleksij’s family since aid had been organised in 2019 to support a project in Avdiivka, where Oleksij had been living since leaving Donetsk, where he had studied at university. He was a political scientist by training. After the Russian army occupied Donetsk in 2015, Oleksij and his wife founded a patriotic youth movement in Avdiivka. They had also organised a Ukrainian Festival in the same city on several occasions. The last time was in 2021, before the city was completely destroyed and occupied by the Russian army.
For his visit in 2019, we organised a charity concert at the church of Notre-Dame in Villerupt (France) to finance musical instruments for the youth group that Oleksij had formed and which was going to perform at the music festival in Avdiivka.
On the same occasion, he had visited classes at the Lycée de Garçons in Esch-sur-Alzette (L) where he had given a testimony on how his country had been invaded by the Russian army since 2014 and the consequences this had for Ukrainians.
He gave interviews to Luxemburger Wort, tageblatt and Radio Jéricho in Metz.
Our Ad Pacem committee extends its sincere condolences to his wife Svitlana, his children Danil and Marijka and his entire family.
