(PatrioticPost.com)- The Russian woman who gave up her citizenship in 2014 to fight with Ukraine was killed in action last Tuesday.
Olga Simonova, 34, a sergeant with Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade, was killed in the southern Kherson region, according to local news outlet TSN.
Simonova, nicknamed “Simba,” was from the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. She abandoned her country in 2014 outraged by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempted annexation of Crimea.
Simonova relocated to Kyiv where she began working as a paramedic in a volunteer unit of the Ukraine Armed Forces. She later became the first foreign contractor with the Armed Forces to receive Ukrainian citizenship for serving in the army.
Simonova rose to the rank of sergeant, leading an infantry fighting vehicle in the 24th Mechanized Brigade.
After Russia’s invasion in late February, Simonova’s unit was initially fighting in the eastern Donbas region. Her unit then transferred south where the Ukrainian counteroffensive is currently underway.
TSN correspondent Natalia Nagornaya initially announced Simonova’s death in a Facebook post last week, writing that “Simba” came to Ukraine “and fought for freedom.”
In 2018, Simonova said in an interview with Novynarnia that the annexation of Crimea in 2014 “became a shame for Russia” and when she left, she told her family she would never return. She chose to move to Ukraine because fighting to defend the country “gives me the meaning of life.” Simonova told Novynarnia that while everyone wants peace, “there will be no peace without victory.”
