From Sardinia to Milan, then to Russia and then to Donetsk from 2019.
These are the four stages that marked the life of Elia Putzolu , the 28-year-old Sardinian killed in the last few hours in Ukraine while fighting with the pro-Russians.
The death of the young foreign fighter was confirmed by the Farnesina.
The 28-year-old from Sardinia had moved to Milan , where he worked as a bartender. He then left Italy to settle in Taganrog, Rostov region , in southern Russia near the border with Ukraine.
Since 2019 he was in Donbass, where he had volunteered for the Russian militias . In Donetsk and Lugansk - the two oblasts that make up the Donbass - a "low intensity" war has been waged for at least eight years, well before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
Putzolu was killed in circumstances yet to be clarified - but certainly from wounds sustained in battle - in Donetsk , one of the Regions that Moscow annexed following the referendums considered illegal by the international community. The Italian embassy and intelligence are trying to reconstruct what happened to him and what Putzolu did in recent years: according to what is learned, in fact, he was not known to the national authorities and had not held important roles in terms of proselytism .
The 28-year-old's family members asked for the body to return to Italy.
Few details are known about Putzolu's life, who rarely posted content on social networks, if not a few photos, even in camouflage. From his few posts the only thing that clearly emerges is his proximity to the Fort Rus community , a page "in support of the resistance of the Russian peoples" that spreads "news and documents on the empire's war against Russia".
What is certain is that she had espoused the cause of the Great Mother Russia, with a passion for that country that some speculate may be linked to the stories of her grandmother, of Russian origin: " She learned the language and lived for over a year with the militiamen Donetsk sharing a thousand difficulties, with the desire to help ", says Vittorio Nicola Rangeloni, an Italian freelance in the region who posted a long story, calling him" a dear friend "with a story" which ended too soon in the trenches not far from Donetsk ”.
He is the third Italian killed in Ukraine: Edy Ongaro, a 45-year-old from Veneto, also died fighting with the pro-Russians in the Donbass; Benjamin Giorgio Galli, 27, from the province of Varese, died in the Kharkiv area and was fighting on the opposite front with the Ukrainian troops.
The Italians involved as foreign fighters in the Donbass are at least 17 , nine on the Kiev side and eight on the Moscow side.
(Unioneonline / L)