UKRAINE — A farewell ceremony was held on Wednesday for a former U.S. Special Forces soldier who traveled to Ukraine to train the country's fighters during the war with Russia.
Nicholas Maimer, a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant from Boise, Idaho, was killed in the eastern city of Bakhmut two months ago when the building he was in collapsed under artillery fire.
RELATED: Boise veteran Nick Maimer killed in Ukraine
It has taken weeks for Maimer's body to be returned from the battlefield.
“Nick was a professional military man,” said Jackie Hess, his friend who has also been an instructor of Ukrainian soldiers of the Territorial Defense Forces.
“He came to Ukraine because there was a big problem” he said. “And he wanted to be part of the solution.”
Fighting is still intense in and around the vicinity of Bakhmut, where Russia now controls the city but Ukrainian forces are advancing from the north and south in a semi-encirclement.
