Italian Volunteer Dies After Going Missing in Ukraine

Rome: An Italian volunteer who fought alongside the Ukrainian army, Luca Cecca, has died. He had not been heard from since 2024.

According to Ansa News Agency, the news of his death was announced on the Facebook page commemorating the memory of foreigners who fell in Ukraine, the Memorial International Volunteer for Ukraine. A post on the page read, “Our beloved Italian brother, Luca Cecca, who served in Ukraine as a volunteer, fell on the battlefield. Honor, glory, and gratitude to our brother,” next to a photograph of Luca Cecca.

Luca Cecca was born in Rome 34 years ago, and his death has been confirmed by sources familiar with the matter. He had been officially listed as missing since December 2024. Other sources report that he died fighting in Donetsk, which was de facto annexed by Russia.

Memorial also reports the deaths of a Colombian volunteer, Jimmy Mosquera Cuero, and a Frenchman, Erik Coursier. Cecca is the ninth Italian to die in the war in Ukraine, following Thomas D’Alba, Antonio Omar Dridi, M
anuel Mameli, Angelo Costanza, Massimiliano Galletti, Elia Putzolu (who sided with the pro-Russian forces), Benjamin Giorgio Galli, and Edy Ongaro.