A former British Army soldier who was killed fighting in Ukraine was a “brave soul”, his family has said.
Liam Love was killed by a mortar bomb in Lyman in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine last month.
The 24-year-old grew up in Coventry but his parents live in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, where his funeral will be held on Saturday.
Mr Love joined Ukrainian forces earlier this year, having served with the Royal Anglian Regiment for four years.
He helped train Ukrainian conscripts following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
His father Michael Love said his son “befriended” the Ukrainian soldiers during the training, telling BBC Northern Ireland: “He gave me a sense that he wanted to be more involved but never did I think that involvement would one day lead him to actually crossing the border into Ukraine.
“He empathised with the Ukrainian people and their plight and I think he felt that he didn’t give enough to the Ukrainian recruits when he was part of the training package.
“So he wanted to go out and help them to free themselves from what the Russians were doing at the time.”
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Mr Love’s father said his son was not put off fighting in Ukraine despite being hit by shrapnel in the month before he was killed.
On 9 October, the family received a call from a soldier who had been fighting alongside Mr Love.
They were told he had been killed in action, in a call Mr Love’s father said he had “hoped [he] would never have to take”.
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Michael Love said his son told him during his recovery he planned to return home for Christmas.
“He wanted to be remembered by a simple quote, ‘What we do in life echoes in eternity’, and that will echo with me. He was just a brave soul,” he added.
The family hope the funeral service at St Patrick’s Church in Derrygonnelly will be followed by a memorial service at Coventry Cathedral at a later date.
