(ANSA) - ROMA, 20 MAR - epa10533549 Relatives, friends, and
comrades attend the funeral ceremony for Ukrainian serviceman
Bizhan Sharopov in Kyiv, Ukraine, 20 March 2023 amid the Russian
invasion. Ukrainian scientific biologist and military man Bizhan
Sharopov was considered missing near the Eastern Ukrainian city
of Izyum since April 2022 after he returned to the army at the
start of the Russian invasion. Bizhan Sharopov defended his
candidate of science thesis in 2019, began teaching and was the
head of the Council of Young Scientists of the National Academy
of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. He was an active participant in
the Revolution of Dignity and fought in the Lugansk region in
2014-2015. Russian troops entered Ukraine on 24 February
resulting in fighting and destruction in the country and
triggering a series of severe economic sanctions on Russia by
Western countries. EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO (ANSA).