Ukrainian actor Pasha Lee killed in Russian bombardment

Talented Ukrainian actor and TV presenter Pasha Lee has been killed in action as Russian troops bombed the town of Irpin, outside the capital Kyiv.

Lee, 33, had joined Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Force in the early days of the war.

As a resident of Irpin, he appeared in several films and his voice was heard in the Ukrainian versions of The Lion King and The Hobbit.

He is one of several public figures killed in the Russian invasion.

Investigative journalist Viktor Dudar was killed during a front-line skirmish with Russian troops near the southern city of Mykolaiv, according to Ukrainian reports.

Pavlo Li, as the actor was officially known, was born in Crimea in 1988 and had recently started presenting a show on Dom TV, a Ukrainian channel originally aimed at audiences in the eastern areas, launched in 2014 by von Russia-backed separatists were conquered.

The channel’s head, Julia Ostrovska, told the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine that he was the “happiest and sunniest” presenter on the show.

Lee has starred in TV talent shows Star Factory and X-Factor, as well as a number of films, including SelfieParty, released in 2016, which involved four college students who wake up in a police station after a night on the town with no idea how they are have come there.

As a young actor, he starred in a 2006 teen horror film called The Pit, but recently starred in the comedy Meeting of Classmates.

Irpin, the town where he lived 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Kyiv, has been bombarded by Russian artillery for days, with shocking scenes of death, destruction and the flight of families.

Residents were able to leave Irpin and the northeastern city of Sumy Tuesday as part of a Russian evacuation corridor toward downtown Poltava.

Days before Pasha Lee was killed, he posted a link to a Ukrainian refugee aid organization and urged people to either ask for help or volunteer.

In his last Instagram post, he posted a photo showing himself and a colleague with the happy message that they are smiling because “we will be ok and everything will be Ukraine”.