Ruslan Ganushchak, a filmmaker and war correspondent who also worked as an official for the Automobile Federation of Ukraine, was killed in action on January 11. He was 54 years old.

Ganushchak was involved with the Russo-Ukrainian War from the start in 2014, volunteering with the Azov Battalion and covering the war through photographs and films that he brought to the West. He was the cinematographer for Winter on Fire, a 2015 documentary and Oscar nominee covering the Euromaidan and Revolution of Dignity. As a director, he was behind the shorts Two Days in Ilovaisk and Brother for Brother, the latter about Georgian troops in the unit.

Once the war escalated in 2022 with full-scale Russian invasion, he joined the 92nd Assault Brigade that operates primarily in Kharkiv. Callsign “Ostap”, Ganushchak worked as a Humvee driver with the brigade’s drone units.

In more peaceful times, Ganushchak helped organize races in his native Ivano-Frankivsk. His wife Oleksandra Kodak is a former rally driver and director of the Precarpathian Automobile Club, which annually organizes the Trembita Rally in the region.

“Ruslan was active in preparing and hosting numerous motorsports races in the Ivano-Frankivsk region,” reads a statement from the FAU. “He was a wonderful father to his daughter and an attentive husband to Oleksandra, the head of many auto races.

“Almost from the first days of the war in 2014, the Ivano-Frankivsk resident was in the hottest spots, creating materials about the heroic struggle of Ukrainians against the Russian-fascist invaders…

“The Automobile Federation of Ukraine expresses its deepest condolences to Ruslan’s family and friends.”

His service will take place on Saturday at Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti.