A US Army Green Beret has died fighting in Ukraine, it was revealed today after Russian forces posted a grim video showing the slain soldier’s body.
Nick Maimer, 45, of Boise, Idaho, was killed when a Russian shell tore through the building where he was taking cover during brutal fighting over the besieged city of Bakhmut.
The head of Moscow’s Wagner Group paramilitary wing, Yevgeny Prigozhin, yesterday posted an appalling video to social media showing off Maimer’s US ID cards before panning to his lifeless corpse.
‘We will hand him over to the United States of America, we’ll put him in a coffin, cover him with the American flag,’ Prigozhin bragged in the footage.
Maimer’s identity was confirmed Wednesday by special forces veteran Perry Blackburn, who has been assisting Ukraine in the fight against Russia. Blackburn recruited Maimer to Kyiv last May.
![Founder of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves a cemetery before the funeral of a Russian military blogger who was killed in a bomb attack in a St Petersburg cafe, in Moscow, Russia, April 8, 2023](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/19/71103165-12095215-image-a-17_1684349006519.jpg)
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin (in the video, left, and in Moscow earlier this year, right) appears in the grisly footage. ‘We will hand him over to the United States of America, we’ll put him in a coffin, cover him with the American flag,’ Prigozhin states
![Retired Army Sgt First Class Maimer was a 20-year veteran who spent time serving with the special forces. He went to Kyiv in May 2022 to help Ukraine in the war effort](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/19/71104479-12095215-image-m-19_1684349140572.jpg)
Retired Army Sgt First Class Maimer was a 20-year veteran who spent time serving with the special forces. He went to Kyiv in May 2022 to help Ukraine in the war effort
![Maimer's lifeless body is shown in the footage inside a building in Bakhmut that was hit by a Russian shell](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/19/71104459-12095215-image-a-21_1684349248605.jpg)
Maimer’s lifeless body is shown in the footage inside a building in Bakhmut that was hit by a Russian shell
‘From what I understand, he was providing them with firsthand training in that area so that they can continue to do the fight, and he got caught behind enemy lines,’ Blackburn told the Idaho Statesman. ‘It’s just a crazy, crazy time right now. And then having Nick die over there, it’s just brutal.’
Paul Maimer, the veteran’s uncle, paid tribute to his nephew, telling the paper: ‘He persevered through a lot in his life. I had the utmost respect for him. A lot of people can learn from who he was and what he had accomplished in his short life. In 45 years, he lived a lot. He went over there as a humanitarian trying to do good for this world.’
Maimer’s death marks at least the ninth American killed in the war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
‘We’re just trying to get him home for proper burial,’ Paul Maimer told the Statesman. ‘I think he’s deserving to be put to rest in a veterans cemetery. He might not have been fighting for our country, but he was fighting for the right reasons.’
A State Department spokesman said: ‘We are aware of the reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in Bakhmut and are seeking additional information.
‘Our ability to verify reports of deaths of US citizens in Ukraine is extremely limited. We offer our condolences to the families of all whose lives have been lost as a result of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine.’
Retired Army Sgt First Class Maimer was a 20-year veteran who spent time serving with the special forces.
After retiring from the forces in 2018, he worked in the IT department for the Saint Alphonsus Health System.
Two months before the war broke out, Maimer moved to Spain to teach English.
In a previous interview with the Statesman, the Borah High School graduate said he felt compelled to join the war effort to uphold democracy.
His family shipped his combat gear out to Poland for him.
‘It’s really obvious to everybody that it’s an unjustified invasion,’ he said last June. ‘So I felt like my moral compass just pointed me toward it.’
![Retired Army Sgt First Class Maimer is pictured during his service in the Philippines](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/19/71104477-12095215-image-a-20_1684349183819.jpg)
Retired Army Sgt First Class Maimer is pictured during his service in the Philippines
![Maimer's ID cards were shown off by the Russian forces in the video](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/19/71104473-12095215-image-a-26_1684349416425.jpg)
Maimer’s ID cards were shown off by the Russian forces in the video
![Smoke rising from a building in Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/18/70925387-12095215-Smoke_rising_from_a_building_in_Bakhmut_the_site_of_the_heaviest-a-6_1684344852707.jpg)
Smoke rising from a building in Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine
![Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar at Russian positions on the frontline near Bakhmut](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/18/70925429-12095215-Ukrainian_soldiers_fire_a_mortar_at_Russian_positions_on_the_fro-a-7_1684344857308.jpg)
Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar at Russian positions on the frontline near Bakhmut
He joined Blackburn in Kyiv in May 2022, working with his non-profit AFGFree to distribute supplies to the frontlines and assist with evacuating civilians.
Maimer was committed to staying in the war-torn country.
‘I’m out here indefinitely as long as I’m still useful, I think,’ Maimer told the Statesman. ‘I’m used to an acceptable amount of risk. I say my stress inoculation is pretty high.’
At the time, Maimer met US Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) in Kyiv. The statesman was visiting in his capacity as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Risch mourned the loss of the veteran on Tuesday.
‘I met with him last summer in Kyiv and remember he had a clear understanding that the Ukrainians are fighting today for what our founding fathers fought for in 1776,’ Risch said in a statement.
‘In our conversation, it was clear Nick was exceptionally well trained for, and sober about, the realities of the war in Ukraine. He talked about helping evaluate foreign volunteers for Ukraine but he also knew his particular training could help, and he made the choice to do what he thought was right. May he rest in peace.’
It comes as fighting in and around Bakhmut is ramping up, with Ukrainian deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar saying yesterday that Kyiv’s troops have pushed Russian forces from chunks of territory around the embattled city.
She said the Ukrainian military had reclaimed about 7.5 square miles of territory from the Russian forces in the past few days around Bakhmut.
Maliar, who has indicated previously that the Ukrainian advances around Bakhmut are not part of a broader counteroffensive planned by Kyiv, said developments there ‘should not be taken out of context’.
‘For example, within a few days, our troops liberated about 20 square kilometers from the enemy in the north and south of the suburbs of Bakhmut,’ she wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
‘At the same time, the enemy is advancing somewhat in Bakhmut itself, completely destroying the city with artillery.’
![Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Friday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/18/71048477-12095215-Ukrainian_soldiers_fire_a_cannon_near_Bakhmut_an_eastern_city_wh-a-1_1684344723791.jpg)
Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Friday
![Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Monday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/18/71048401-12095215-Ukrainian_soldiers_fire_a_cannon_near_Bakhmut_an_eastern_city_wh-a-3_1684344730318.jpg)
Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Monday
![Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Friday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/18/71051021-12095215-Ukrainian_soldiers_fire_a_cannon_near_Bakhmut_an_eastern_city_wh-a-4_1684344732999.jpg)
Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Friday
![Ukrainian servicemen rest at their positions after a fight, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the front line city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on May 11](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/17/18/71050993-12095215-krainian_servicemen_rest_at_their_positions_after_a_fight_as_Rus-a-5_1684344736827.jpg)
Ukrainian servicemen rest at their positions after a fight, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, near the front line city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on May 11
She reiterated that Russia was sending in new paratroopers and added: ‘Heavy battles continue with different results.’
The Ukrainian military said last week it had started to push Russian forces back around Bakhmut after months of heavy fighting, and Moscow acknowledged that its forces had fallen back north of the city.
And Russia said two of its military commanders had been killed in combat near the town.
Moscow’s main target for months has been Bakhmut, which it has come close to capturing but not quite taken in what would be its sole prize after months of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two.
Vladimir Putin sees the city as a stepping stone towards capturing the rest of the eastern Donbas region.
It comes as the US announced last week that it will provide $1.2 billion more in long-term military aid to Ukraine to further bolster its air defenses amid Russian drone and missile attacks.
Unlike US equipment, weapons and ammunition sent from Pentagon stocks that can be delivered to Ukraine quickly, this money is to be spent over the coming months or even years to ensure Ukraine’s future security needs.
The Pentagon said it will fund air-defense munitions and drones for air defense, and provide equipment to help modify Western air-defense launchers, missiles and radars so they can be used with Ukraine’s systems.
It will also buy artillery rounds, howitzer ammunition, satellite imagery assistance and funding for ongoing maintenance and spare parts for a variety of systems. U.S. officials said the weapons include HAWK air-defense systems.
The Pentagon said the aid will build the capacity of Ukraine’s military ‘to defend its territory and deter Russian aggression over the long term.’
Including this package, the U.S. has provided Ukraine nearly $37 billion in military aid since Russia invaded in February 2022.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk