Maksym Popelyuk, a youth national champion in motocross and cross-country bike racing, was killed by a Russian kamikaze drone strike on May 21 while serving with the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade in the Donetsk region. He was 26 years old.

Popelyuk attended Kolomyia Lyceum No. 1 before graduating from Lviv Polytechnic National University. His father Mykhailo Popelyk is a board member on the Federation Motorcycling of Ukraine (the country’s FIM member) and heads its enduro commission.

Following the full-scale Russian invasion, Popelyuk joined the AFU. He was a drone systems operator for the 10th Brigade based in Kolomyia.

Bogdan Stanislavsky, the mayor of Kolomyia, confirmed his death on Friday.

The motorcade with his body will arrive in Kolomya on Sunday before going to his family’s house. His funeral service is scheduled for Monday at the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Lord before being buried in Kolomyia’s Alley of Glory.

Featured image credit: Bogdan Stanislavsky