A soldier from Ukraine received a posthumous medal for his declaration of “Glory to Ukraine” in a widely circulated video before being shot and killed. He was honored with a statue in his hometown in the north on Saturday.

In March, a video was posted featuring a man identified by the military as Oleksandr Matsievskiy, a sniper from the Chernihiv region. In the video, he can be heard saying “Slava Ukraini,” a phrase that has been used for over a hundred years and has now become a common expression of defiance against Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

Matsievskiy is shown standing in a wooded area, smoking a cigarette and not carrying any visible weapons. Suddenly, he falls to the ground as if he is being repeatedly shot by unseen attackers.

Kyiv accused the Russians of being “violent and audacious” for causing his demise, which was also acknowledged by his mother Paraska Demchuk, 68.

“If only he had a grenade, he would have taken all of them with him,” she proudly stated while displaying the medal her son received from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, recognizing him as a “Hero of Ukraine.”

“He would tell me, ‘Mom, I will always resist being caught,'” she cried. “He didn’t just talk without purpose. It was deep within him, like a fundamental part of his being,” she explained.

The city of Kyiv is conducting a criminal inquiry into the passing of Matsievskiy. He was widely praised as a hero on social media where numerous supporters shared the phrase “Heroyam Slava,” which translates to “Glory to the Heroes” and is a customary response to “Slava Ukraini.”