NIZHYN, Ukraine — Checking social media one day after work, Paraska Demchuk saw a photo of a man she immediately recognized as her son. The image was from a video of his execution that went viral on social media. Smoking his final cigarette in a wooded area, he shouts “Glory to Ukraine” before collapsing in a hail of bullets.
“In the end, he understood he couldn’t do anything. He had no weapon, no grenade, no gun. But he had these words,” Demchuk, 67, told NBC News at her modest home in the town of Nizhyn, about 90 miles northeast of Kyiv.
Those words helped galvanize a nation even as the graphic video devastated a mother, with her son Oleksander Matsievsky hailed as a hero for uttering the rallying cry in his final moments.
The 42-year-old sniper was killed on Dec. 30 near Bakhmut, Ukraine’s security services said, and his defiant demise has come to symbolize the country’s defense of the eastern city — arguably the most fiercely contested territory in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.
Mercenaries, mud and morale
Some experts question Bakhmut’s strategic importance, and worry that Ukraine — whose nimble, lightning counteroffensives saw it recapture swaths of territory late last year — may be pouring valuable resources into a grinding battle that will undermine fresh offensives planned for the spring.
But eight months of brutal trench warfare have transformed Bakhmut from an obscure mining city into a modern-day Stalingrad whose fate could shape the course of the war.
Victory for either side would be a huge morale boost, and could rally support from respective allies, providing momentum to shift a front line that has remained largely static for months.
For Demchuk, tearful and mourning the loss of her only child, there can be no retreat from Bakhmut.
In a corner of her living room Ukraine’s highest medal of honor, awarded posthumously in a red leather-bound case, dominates a shrine to her son.
“We have no other option but to continue…
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