Ukrainian actor and TV host who joined his country’s defence against the Russian invasion last week has died.
Pasha Lee, 33, has been killed by shelling in the city of Irpin.
He rose to fame as the star of the 2019 comedy film, ‘Meeting of Classmates’ and 2017 sport action movie, ‘The Fight Rules’, while he was also a presenter on the DOM channel in Ukraine, Manchester Evening News reports.
Pasha joined the Territorial Defence Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine last week in a bid to defend his country amid the invasion of Russian troops, the Mirror reports.
He shared images of himself kitted out in uniform on social media and in a tragic image posted on Saturday, he told followers ‘we are smiling because we will manage’.
The Instagram post translated as: “For the last 48 hours there is an opportunity to sit down and take a picture of how we are being bombed, and we are smiling because we will manage and everything will be UKRAINE WE ARE WORKING!!!”
A Facebook post by Sergiy Tomilenko, President of Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists, confirmed the death of Lee – who had also worked as a dubbing artist on movies such as The Lion King, Malibu rescuers and Hobbit.
And the head of the UATV/DOM Platform, Julia Ostrovsk, said Pasha was the ‘most joyful and sunny’ of the TV presenters working on the programme.
Tomilenko’s post continued to say: “The National Association of Journalists of Ukraine express sincere condolences to Paul’s family and loved ones.
“Our words of support are the entire team of the DOM channel, which embodies a noble mission of speech for the de-occupation of Donetsk, Luhansk regions and Crimea. True, because of Russia’s attack on all Ukraine, the mission is correct.
“Now all journalists are working to de-occupation of the country. For the sake of the world…”
Anastasiya Kasilova, one of Pasha’s co-stars on Provincial, the 2021 TV drama that was one of his final projects, paid tribute to the actor on Facebook.
“He is an actor, TV presenter, my colleague and a good acquaintance…,” she said.