James Hill, a Minnesota native who stayed in Ukraine to care for his partner, is 2nd American killed by “Putin’s senseless war”

Russian forces have been blamed for the death of a second American citizen Ukraine. After the outbreak of war, James Hill, originally from Minnesota, remained in the besieged city of Chernihiv in northeastern Ukraine, very close to the Russian border, to care for his partner Irina, who she was being treated at a local hospital for multiple sclerosis.

An adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister identified Hill as one of the victims of a Russian attack on Thursday morning on people queuing for food in Chernivtsi. There were conflicting reports as to whether civilians were hit by guns or artillery fire. The city is among the main settlements in eastern and southern Ukraine that have been decimated by Russian bombing for days, as Vladimir Putin’s ground forces remain stalled due to logistical problems and strong Ukrainian resistance.

Hill’s sister Katya in Pennsylvania told CBS Pittsburgh that her brother had been living in the capital, Kyiv, but that she had traveled to Chernihiv to treat her partner’s MS.

“When I was warning him about the dangers, I didn’t feel like the world would let that happen, because my parents raised us to see the good in people’s hearts, and that’s how he lived,” Katya told CBS Pittsburgh.

Speaking on CBS News last night, he said that the last time he spoke to his brother, he could hear explosions in the background.

“He went out every day to look for food. The hospital lost electricity. The hospital lost gas. There was no heat,” he said. “My brother was a peacemaker and he was a donor, and he felt that everyone in the world should be loved.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed Thursday that another American had died in Ukraine, although he did not give further details. A State Department spokesman confirmed that the death had occurred on March 17 and offered “our most sincere condolences to the family for their loss.”

Hill, who leaves two children, was the second American citizen to die in Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion. Film director Brent Renaud, 50, was killed when Russian troops opened fire on him and his comrades in the city of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, while traveling to film the refugees on March 13. One of his associates was injured in the attack.

Veteran Fox News video journalist Pierre Zakrzewski and local producer Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova they were killed just two days later, on March 15, when his vehicle “was hit by an incoming fire” near Kyiv. Zakrzewski was a London-based European citizen for Fox, while Kuvshynova was one of many native Ukrainians who have joined foreign news teams to help report on the war in their home country.

Katya Hill told CBS Pittsburgh that her brother had been sharing updates with her every day since Putin ordered his military to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24. However, I had not spoken to him for a few days. He said the family learned of Hill’s death from the U.S. embassy in Ukraine.

“After he said he had no way to charge his phone, then I knew it was a question of whether we would hear that he was safe in Poland or get the news we didn’t want to know?” said Katya Hill.

“A good person has left too soon,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said in a tweet, offering her “deepest condolences” to Hill’s family.

“Putin’s senseless war is leading to so much unnecessary tragedy,” the lawmaker added.

The United Nations has done that confirmed at least 780 civilian deaths in Ukraine since Russia began its war. That number includes 58 children, with most of the deaths attributed to bombings and airstrikes, and the UN human rights agency acknowledges that “the actual toll is much higher.”

In:
• antony blink
• Ukraine
• Russia