Roman Maksymyuk, a former Ukraine international who played for Dnipro, has been killed in action in the Pokrovsk sector while on a combat mission, his wife said on Facebook. He played as a midfielder.
A DNA test confirmed his death in October 2026. He was identified from a sample his daughter had given earlier. For about 20 months, Maksymyuk had been listed as missing.
He last contacted his family on 30 January 2025. He told his wife he was leaving on a combat mission near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region and might be out of contact for a long time. He was sought from then on, but his relatives had no reliable information about what had happened to him.
The Pokrovsk area is among those hit hardest by the fighting.
"There was no miracle. A year of hope, waiting, prayers and faith…" his wife wrote. She thanked everyone who had supported the family during the months of searching: "Thank you to everyone who prayed, supported us, helped in the search and did not let hope die." She called on people to remember him as a father, son, friend and loved one, and not only as a missing serviceman.
In autumn 2022, Maksymyuk volunteered for Ukraine's Defence Forces. He served as a gunner in the 25th Sicheslav Airborne Assault Brigade, first in a mobile fire group that protected Lutsk from air attacks. He was later moved to the Kharkiv sector, and then to the Pokrovsk sector.
From the first days of Russia's invasion, he took part in charity veterans' football tournaments and raised money to buy cars for army units.
Maksymyuk was born on 14 June 1974 in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. His career began at Prykarpattia, his first professional club. He then played for Dynamo Kyiv, Dnipro, Volyn Lutsk and Chornomorets Odesa. In 1999 he won the Russian Cup with Zenit St Petersburg.
He won 5 caps for Ukraine between 1998 and 2002. His playing career ended in 2011.
He later lived in Lutsk, which became his home, and worked as a coach. Before the full-scale war, he worked as a loader.
Before the friendly against Canada in Toronto on 7 June 2025, Ukraine's players walked onto the pitch wearing Maksymyuk's Volyn shirt and his military tunic. The Ukrainian Football Association posted photos of the moment. It said the war also affects people who until recently represented the country in sport.