By Smartencyclpedia News Staff with Agencies

Anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin, known for his protests against Vladimir Putin’s regime, has been killed on the front lines while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, according to reports from Russian independent media and close friends.

“It is with deep sorrow that I must inform you that Ildar Dadin – Gandhi (his military code name) – died yesterday (Saturday) in combat in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine,” announced Ilya Ponomaryov, former Russian parliamentarian and close friend of Dadin, on Facebook. Ponomaryov, now in exile, hailed Dadin as a “fearless and determined fighter” who joined the battle to “fight against Putinism.” Dadin’s death was also confirmed by Russian journalist Ksenia Larina and several other independent Russian outlets.

From Activist to Combatant

Dadin was the first Russian citizen convicted under a 2014 law that cracked down on protests in the country. He peacefully protested alone against the Russian authorities, and the law became known as the “Dadin Law” after his conviction in 2015, which sentenced him to two and a half years in prison.

Dadin’s “crime,” according to the Russian court, was standing in the streets of Moscow holding a sign with the message: “If you stay silent, tomorrow the next person to be silenced could be you when they come after you.” While detained in a prison camp, Dadin publicly denounced, in a 2016 open letter, the torture and humiliation inflicted upon him by prison guards. He described being hung by his handcuffed wrists and threatened with sexual abuse.

After his release in 2017, Dadin joined a “Siberian battalion,” according to Ponomaryov, and later enlisted in the “Freedom of Russia Legion,” a group reportedly formed by anti-Putin Russians responsible for several raids into Russia.

“A Brave and Heroic Figure”

Dadin often argued that other Russians had failed to stop Vladimir Putin, letting fear of police violence and the threat of imprisonment silence them. He believed he bore personal responsibility for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The main thing now is to act in accordance with my conscience,” Dadin wrote one night near the front lines in Sumy. Despite witnessing the horrors of war, the activist reaffirmed that he would never abandon the trenches while Ukrainian soldiers continued to be killed “by Russian criminals.”

Recruits in these groups are primarily Russian citizens who have fled the country, hoping to help Ukraine by defeating Vladimir Putin.

The Civic Council, the group that recruited Dadin, also confirmed his death to the BBC, emphasizing that “he was, and continues to be, a hero.”

The Russian activist was killed when his volunteer battalion came under Russian artillery fire in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.

“Ildar was strong, brave, and honest,” wrote the Civic Council. “That is how we should remember him.”

Ildar Dadin was 42 years old.