For the first time in the Empire’s history, an Austenasian national has died.
Taras Oliynyk was a Ukrainian citizen who served as governing commissioner of the Austenasian crown dependency of Chersoneses, which was claimed from Ukraine in June 2020.
He was drafted into the Ukrainian armed forces on February 22nd after the escalation of the ongoing conflict.
Taras lived in Chersoneses with his father, who was also drafted.
On March 9th, the government was informed that Taras was receiving treatment after having suffered a serious gunshot wound in battle. He died from his injuries yesterday evening.
Emperor Jonathan I has released a broadcast in response to this tragedy, in which he announced a nation-wide period of mourning for eleven days, to end with a minute’s silence at 6pm local time on March 24th.