ROMNY, Ukraine (AP) — Maksym Halinichev won silver at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in a fight described at the time as “two of the best young fighters looking for glory.” He considered the fight a defeat — it wasn’t gold, after all — but it gave him a road map for the future.
So Halinichev made plans: he would defeat this boxer next time. He would teach his daughter the basics of his sport so she could defend herself. And he would win a medal for Ukraine at the Paris Olympics.
In this photo provided by the International Olympic Committee, from left, silver medalist Maksym Halinichev of Ukraine, gold medalist Abdumalik Khalokov of Uzbekistan and bronze medalist Mirco Jehiel Cuello of Argentina stand together during the medal ceremony for the men’s Bantam (up to 56kg) boxing event at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (Thomas Lovelock/IOC via AP)
Halinchev outlined these ambitions as an athlete in an interview for the Ukrainian Boxing Federation website in December 2021, as Russian troops were already massing on Ukraine’s borders.
When asked if he was afraid before a fight, he described his thinking.
“Fear can affect people in different ways. Some people are paralyzed by it. Others respond by breaking free,” he said. “If you can control yourself and your body and if you can get on the right track, then the fear will disappear.”
He will not be able to prove this philosophy in the Olympic ring in Paris.
Halinichev enlisted as a soldier and was killed at the front in March 2023 at the age of 22, one of more than 400 athletes killed since the start of the war. His body has not yet been found.
Halinichev, one of Ukraine’s brightest boxing prospects, could have been spared from the war. Ukraine has sent many Olympic hopefuls abroad to train in preparation for the Summer Games. But not everyone wants to be saved. Some choose to defend their country’s honor on the battlefield rather than in the sporting arena.
Halinichev’s attitude to fear remained intact after the full-scale Russian invasion, but his priorities changed.
It happened during a car ride in April 2022 from his native Sumy region to kyiv, where he had planned to train for the upcoming European Championship. Russia had just withdrawn from the region, and along the highway he saw towns and villages devastated by Russian troops during their brief occupation, his coach Bohdan Dmytrenko said.
“I have a little daughter. I don’t want her to live under the occupation of the aggressor, among the Russians,” Halinichev told another of his coaches, Volodymyr Vinnikov.
“I said, Maksym, please listen to me, you are still a representative of Ukrainian boxing, you also defend the honor of Ukraine. The flag, the anthem, it is also very important,” Vinnikov said.
“You won’t convince me. I’ve made this decision. I’ll learn to shoot,” Halinichev told him.
Young boxers stand during the official opening of a boxing tournament in honor of Maksym Halinichev, who was killed fighting with Russian forces in March 2023, in Romny, Sumy region, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Young boxers fight during a boxing tournament in honor of Maksym Halinichev, who was killed in fighting with Russian forces in March 2023, in Romny, Sumy region, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Boxing was still important to him, but he wanted to go further, his life partner Polina Ihrak said. Sumy, a border region, was still under attack despite the Russian withdrawal. Kherson, where he trained, was under Russian occupation and reports of the suffering of Ukrainians in that region were emerging.
“He didn’t understand how his friends and coaches who were in Kherson no longer had the opportunity to live, let alone train, and he was going somewhere in Europe,” Ihrak said. “He couldn’t afford to do it. It was important to him.”
In May 2022, at age 21, Halinichev joined the airborne assault troops, according to the Ukrainian Boxing Federation. He was injured before the end of the year near Bakhmut, with a foot wound and shrapnel embedded so deeply in his leg that doctors were unable to remove it.
During his convalescence, Halinichev spends time with his trainer but avoids talking about what he saw during the war. Everyone hopes that he will leave the army, but Halinichev returns to the battlefield with his wounds unhealed.
“He thought he had to go back to his brothers in arms because they needed him,” said Ihrak, the mother of their daughter, Vasilisa.
The last time they spoke via video call was on March 9, 2023. Days without contact turned into weeks. She tried calling Halinichev and his commander. Neither answered.
She began scrolling through Russian Telegram channels, searching for his face among the photos of the dead and wounded on the battlefield. One photo stood out, of a body in the forest.
“His mother recognized him immediately, but not me, because I guess I refused to recognize him,” Ihrak said. He was killed on March 10, 2023, in Luhansk, a region now almost entirely under Russian control.
Vasilisa performs during a boxing tournament in honor of her father Maksym Halinichev, who was killed in fighting with Russian forces in March 2023, in Romny, Sumy region, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Vasilisa plays with her mother, Polina Ihrak, during a boxing tournament in honor of her father, Maksym Halinichev, who was killed fighting with Russian forces in March 2023, in Romny, Sumy region, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
At a recent memorial service for her father at the gym where he trained, Vasilisa, 4, bounced happily around the boxing ring, wearing oversized gloves that dwarfed her small hands.
It wouldn’t be his father who taught him how to fight, but Ihrak couldn’t imagine Halinichev doing anything different.
“People go there (to the front) not to regret but to change something,” Ihrak said. “He came back without a doubt.”
Others who died fighting for Ukraine include pistol shooters Ivan Bidnyak, a European Championship silver medalist, and Yehor Kihitov, a member of the Ukrainian national team; Stanislav Hulenkov, a 22-year-old judoka whose body was identified 10 months after his death; and weightlifter Oleksandr Pielieshenko, who represented Ukraine at the 2016 Rio Olympics. A Russian missile strike on Dnipro killed acrobatics coach Anastasia Ihnatenko, her husband and their 18-month-old son.
Vinnikov, who coached Halinichev in 2017, has no doubt the youngster would have represented his country at the Paris Games, which open on July 26, had the invasion not derailed his plans. “He would have won a medal for his country,” the coach said emphatically.
He had huge potential: gold medal at the 2017 European Youth Championships, silver medal at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, silver medal at the 2021 European Under-22 Championships.
Polina Ihrak cries after returning home from a boxing tournament in honor of her life partner, Maksym Halinichev, who was killed in fighting with Russian forces in March 2023, in Shostka, Sumy region, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
In his empty apartment in the town of Shostka, his parents filled a room with evidence of what he had already accomplished: trophies and medals from 2010 to 2021, neatly arranged on a shelf.
His photo sits in a corner, next to a candle, childhood photos, a religious icon and flowers. His boxing gloves lie nearby.
But Halinichev’s parents no longer live there. Since the war, they have started a new life in the Czech Republic. Ihrak is considering moving to Germany.
Dmytrenko, his trainer, carefully keeps his photos of Halinichev in files and keeps an archive of the messages they exchanged. He recalls a time, just before the war, when he praised Halinichev’s exploits.
Halinichev simply replied: “Everything is yet to come.”
___
Leicester reported from Paris.