Another Georgian volunteer soldier killed in action in Ukraine
Another Georgian volunteer soldier, 24-year-old Levan Lokhishvili, has been killed in action in Ukraine.
As reported by Echo of the Caucasus, Radio Liberty’s regional project, Lokhishvili’s friend Oleksandr Rohava said that Lokhishvili was killed on 19 November in Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast, during the explosion of a Russian "homemade" drone.
"We were preparing reconnaissance and observation positions. We had been working for an hour and heard the sound of a drone, a so-called homemade drone. We waited for a while, but at some point the drone hit Levan. There were four of us. Levan was killed instantly. Another soldier was hit by a piece of the drone and sustained an injury. The other one got a concussion," Rohava said.
Levan Lokhishvili was a soldier of the 3rd Company of the 220th Battalion of the 126th Brigade of Territorial Defence Forces, with the brigade’s HQ located in Odesa. This group consists mainly of volunteer soldiers.
Lokhishvili arrived in Ukraine on 29 March 2022. Before coming to Ukraine, he worked as a cook.
A year later, Lokhishvili went back to Georgia for a while, but in the spring of 2024, he decided to come back to Ukraine.
"He was flexible, he completed all the tasks we gave him at the training ground in five minutes, like a professional soldier. He was a very intelligent and responsible person," Rohava said.
It was reported in October that a Georgian volunteer, Mamuka Kekelia, was killed in action in Ukraine. At the end of August, it was reported that Georgian soldier Viktor Kipritidi had been killed in action as well.
In total, more than 60 volunteer soldiers from Georgia have been killed on the front line in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion.