Ukraine's youngest ever MP has spoken of his agony after his girlfriend – dubbed “the beauty of Kyiv” – was killed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army.
Grief-stricken Sviatoslav Yurash, 26, says Alexandra Kuvshynova, 25, who he loved for more than a decade, was killed while helping journalists document the war on Monday.
Ukrainian producer Alexandra and Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewsk were reportedly killed by Russian shelling on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Sviatoslav met Alexandra at an English language camp when she was 14 and he was 15, and he had adored her ever since.
The MP, first elected at aged just 23, says she was “full of life and dreams” and enjoyed organising music festivals and writing poetry.
In an exclusive interview, Sviatoslav spoke of his loss and the battle to save his motherland from evil Putin’s illegal war.
Speaking over Zoom from besieged Kyiv, he said: “I lost somebody that was dearest to me. We spent a decade together.
“We were everything you can imagine in that time, everything and more and it’s really hard to put a word to it.
“In that time we had joys, we had sadness, we had ups and downs.
“It was the good, the bad but it essentially was building that bond between us which never got weaker.
“We built something that guaranteed that this could never fail, this could never break, this could never be destroyed, what we had.
“She knew me far better than my [now ex] wife could ever and she knew me far better than any number of people and, yes, losing that kind of person is just devastating.”
The bereaved politician explained that they were far closer than just “dear friends” because they had also been romantically involved over the years.
Sviatoslav added: “I could never use that word because we were much more than that.
“In that decade we had different romantic enchantments as well.
“It’s something very hard to pin down but the reality is that I did love that woman in every way that a person could, so it’s a deeper love.
“It’s not infatuation, it's something that you develop with someone you went through everything with.
“It’s very hard to find the words for that, the best word I can find is love.
“The special kind you harness with a person when you harness something for 10 years.”
He added: “We met in English Language camp and we started building that world of ours and basically it was different at different times.
“So sometimes horrible, sometimes wonderful, sometimes close, and all the horrible times is only me to blame and all the wonderful things it is her to thank.
“As I described in my diary, she was the most loyal person in my life.”
He last saw her two or three days before her death, when they went for a walk and stopped at her pal’s home.
There, they “talked about the things we can do for Ukraine and to keep Ukraine successful”.
He added: “She was full of life, she was full of dreams.
Announcing the tragic news on social media, he said: “The beauty of Kyiv Alexandra Kuvshynova, young journalist was murdered by the Russians."
It was Sviatoslav who delivered the “grim news” of Alexandra’s death to her parents.
He is divorced and has a two-year-old son, who is still in Ukraine.
