Sergei Zhurikov

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Sergei Nikolayevich Zhurikov (Romashka) was born on November 21, 1980, in Sevastopol. He joined separatist forces during the war in Donbas and led part of the Donbas People’s Militia in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Before the fighting, he worked as a sacristan at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

Zhurikov fought in Sloviansk and was killed on May 2, 2014, during the siege. Some accounts say he was shot by a Ukrainian sniper; a 2019 interview suggested he may have been killed by unknown assailants in a bathroom. He was buried in Seredyna-Buda, Sumy Oblast, at his mother’s request. The Russian poet Ivan Belokrylov wrote Ballad of a Sexton about him.