Who was Da Vinci, the important Ukrainian commander killed in March?

On March 7th, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the death of Dymtro ‘Da Vinci’ Kotsyubailo, one of the youngest commanders in the history of Ukraine's armed forces. 

“He has been defending our independence and the dignity of our people since 2014,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “One of the youngest heroes of Ukraine.”

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Da Vinci was one of those important fighters whose “character and courage” had come to define the character and courage of the nation, Zelensky explained to the world. 

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Yet few outside of Ukraine knew the name Dymtro Kotsyubailo and even fewer understood why the death of this seemingly legendary and important Ukrainian soldier hit the people and leaders of Ukraine so hard…

Kotsyubailo was born in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, which is in western Ukraine, and was an active participant in the Euromaidan protests according to The Kiyv Independent. 

After Russia annexed Crimea, Kotsyubailo volunteered to fight and went to battle pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, where he was eventually wounded by a tank shell. 

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“Eastern Ukraine truly was his home,” Melaniya Podolyak, project coordinator for the Serhiy Prytula Foundation who knew Kotsyubailo, explained to The Kyiv Independent. 

Podolyak said that she and Kotsyubailo had rarely left the frontlines during the nine years that the conflict had been raging in the east prior to Russia’s 2022 invasion. 

“In 2016, Kotsiubailo—who was only 21 at the time—became the commander of the First Assault Company, which has operated under the name ‘Da Vinci Wolves’ ever since,” wrote Anastasiia Lapatina. 

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Kotsyubailo was eventually awarded a Hero of Ukraine distinction for his role in fighting separatists in Ukraine's Donbas according to Business Insider, but not everything was as it seemed. Kotsyubailo was a member of a controversial nationalist volunteer unit. 

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Leader of the Pravy Sektor, also known as Right Sector in English, Kotsyubailo was an ardent nationalist but not a racist according to reports from The Independent’s Kim Sengupta—who interviewed Kotsyubailo in 2022 regarding his unit's beliefs.

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"We are nationalists; I am a nationalist. In this unit, we have Jews, Muslims, Christians; you'll not see anyone with a Nazi or fascist tattoo or anything like that,” Kotsyubailo said.

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“We have volunteers from lots of different countries; we don't mind where they come from, or their religion," Kotsyubailo added.

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Killed somewhere near Bakhmut, the blow came as a propaganda win for Moscow who had long wanted to see the 27-year-old commander eliminated according to Sengupta. 

Kotsyubailo’s death also came as a remarkably devastating loss for soldiers and citizens alike since he had become one of the many faces of Ukraine’s stubborn resistance.

Kotsyubailo was given a state funeral, which most of the country's civilian and military leaders attended to pay their respects to a soldier who gave everything for his country. 

“The path to our victory is very hard.” Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhny said, “and the price for this victory is the lives of our warriors, the best citizens of Ukraine, who have stood in the defense of the country with weapons in their hands."

“He was never prideful, despite being a remarkable commander at such a young age. He gave himself to the war, to defending Ukraine,” Melaniya Podolyak told the Kyiv Independent, and maybe that’s why his death hit Ukraine so hard.

Photo by Twitter @Mykhailova_A