Swedish volunteer with Azov Battalion dies in car accident

Driving a car on a slippery road, Sjöholm crashed it into
a tree and died immediately. Another three soldiers who were in the car
survived.

It took two weeks to deliver the coffin with his body
back to Sweden. He came to Ukraine in September 2014 to join the nation’s war
against the pro-Kremlin rebels and Russian troops in the Donbas.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin doesn’t care
about Russians in fact, he is a communist,” Sjöholm once said in an
interview. “I don’t have any friends or family in Russia, so I know about
life there only because of the information war.”

Sjöholm’s co-servants recall him as a hard-core
anti-communist.

Azov has a special subdivision of 15 foreign
volunteers, Sweden’s Sjöholm and Mikael Skillt were among them. Skillt still
serves there. Having come to Ukraine during the latest stage of the EuroMaidan
Revolution, he witnessed Russia’s annexation of Crimea and decided to stay. “He
(Sjöholm) wanted to help Ukraine to be free and independent – that was a
motivation for him,” Skillt told the Kyiv Post.

Foreign soldiers come to Ukraine to serve as military
instructors.

Prior to joining Azov, Sjöholm went through studies at
Volunteer Military Organization in Sweden and served at French Foreign Legion.
In Azov, he was teaching military courses, while also was studying Ukrainian.

Leo Sjöholm’s mother, Marinette Sjöholm, received news
about her son’s death almost immediately, she told Expressen, a Swedish
newspaper. “It was frightening for me that everything can happen there (in
Ukraine), so I tried to convince him to stay at home with me,” she said. “But
his choice was extremely brave and I am very proud of it because there are not
so many of us who dare to continue on personal development instead of living
inside the boundaries of the society the rest of our lives.”

Since now, it’s not only the Ryuriks, a Swedish royal
dynasty that came in 9th century to rule what later became Ukraine, that links
two countries. And not just Charles XII, Sweden’s king who attempted to help
Ukraine’s leader Ivan Mazepa to free the country from Russian rule in 1709, unsuccessfully
though. Sjöholm’s death becomes another link.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliana Romanyshnyn
can be reached at romanyshyn@kyivpost.com.