UNA-UNSO Co-Founder Mykola Karpyuk Killed on Front Line in Ukraine

Mykola Karpyuk, a co-founder of the Ukrainian nationalist organisation UNA-UNSO and a former political prisoner in Russia, has been killed while carrying out a combat mission on the front line in Ukraine.

Karpyuk, 62, was killed on September 19 in the Zaporizhzhia sector, where he was serving with Ukraine’s defence forces.

He was arrested by Russian security services in March 2014 on what were described as fabricated charges. In May 2016, a Russian court sentenced him to 22 and a half years in prison over allegations that he had participated in the Chechen War.

After spending five years in Russian captivity, during which he was reportedly subjected to torture, Karpyuk returned to Ukraine in September 2019 as part of a major prisoner exchange between Kyiv and Moscow.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Karpyuk volunteered to join the country’s defence forces, signing a military contract despite being over 60 and no longer subject to compulsory military service.

Karpyuk also had a longstanding connection to Georgia. In 1993, he travelled to the country as a volunteer and fought alongside Georgian forces during the war in Abkhazia as a member of UNA-UNSO’s Argo special unit.

In recognition of his courage and contribution to Georgia’s defence, he was awarded the Order of Vakhtang Gorgasali, one of Georgia’s military decorations.