KYIV – Five years ago, on August 19, 2014, 55-year-old Mark (Markian) Paslawsky (codename “Franko”) – a Ukrainian American volunteer with the Donbas Battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard – was killed in the battle of Ilovaisk. He was covering for his retreating unit and saved the lives of several fellow soldiers at the expense of his own.
On the eve of the anniversary of his death, the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity together with the Museum of the Ukrainian Diaspora opened the exhibition “New York – Ilovaisk: The Choice,” dedicated to Paslawsky and the fifth anniversary of the events in Ilovaisk.
Markian Paslawsky was born in 1959 in an immigrant family in New York. As a child he belonged to the Ukrainian scouting organization Plast. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served in the 75th Ranger Regiment of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.