Ukrainian Olympic weightlifter Oleksandr Pielieshenko died at the age of 30 while serving on the frontlines of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Ukrainian Olympic Committee announced on Monday (May 6) via ESPN.
The committee said Pielieshenko "died in the war with the enemy" on Sunday (May 5) in a post shared on Telegram, adding that he joined the country's armed forces in the early days of Russia's invasion, which was initially launched in February 2022. The Stanytsia Luhanska native represented Ukraine in the 2016 Rio Games, ranking fourth in the men's 85kg category, falling five kilograms short of medaling and won gold at the European weightlifting championships in 2016 and 2017, but was banned from the sport after his second doping violation in 2018.
"It is with great sadness that we announce that today the heart of the honored master of sports of Ukraine, two-time European weightlifting champion Oleksandr Pielieshenko, stopped beating," the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation said via ESPN.
"War takes the best of us.. This is a very heavy loss for the entire weightlifting community of Ukraine. Heroes do not die," Ukrainian weightlifting national coach Viktor Slobodianiuk added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin his country would conduct military operations in Eastern Ukraine during an NBC News translation of a speech addressing the Russian population in Moscow on February 24, 2022. The announcement served as the final action ahead of an attack by the Russian military, which the U.S. and European allies to the neighboring Ukraine had attempted to prevent from taking place through diplomatic discussions.