James Hill: US citizen killed in Russian sniper attack on Ukraine BREAD LINE
A US citizen was killed in the war-hit city of Chernihiv, Ukraine on Thursday after Russian snipers launched an attack on civilians waiting in line for bread. James Whitney Hill's death was confirmed by his sister Cheryl Hill Gordon in a post on Facebook. “My brother Jimmy Hill was killed yesterday in Chernihiv, Ukraine,” Cheryl wrote.
She added, “He was waiting in a bread line with several other people when they were gunned down by Russian military [snipers]. His body was found in the street by the local police.” Gordon also said that James' other brother was notified of his death by the State Department. The US Embassy in the capital city of Kyiv said that Russian forces fatally shot 10 people in the attack earlier this Thursday, which Russia has denied calling a hoax.
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Hill was living in Ukraine for the past 25 years. According to his sister, he was working in the city as a teacher. The 67-year-old was romantically involved with his former student named Irina. Gordon said Irina is in her 40s and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about eight years ago.
The couple was in Chernihiv to seek better medical attention for Irina’s health condition. Gordon said “after two years of searching,” Hill found a hospital there with a doctor who “knew much more about MS than other doctors in the area. He finally got her into the hospital in January,” but “Once the war broke out, he made the decision to stay.”
Hill “was actually trying to get her out of there, but Irina was in poor condition. She would have needed an ambulance to get her out and there was no way to get her out,” Gordon said. “The hospital was running out of food, so he went out to food and that’s how he was killed.” she described.
According to Gordon, Hill used to periodically return to the US in order to meet Ukrainian visa requirements. He also owned a property in Idaho near Yellowstone National Park that his brother rented out to Airbnb when Hill was in Ukraine.