The body of Robert Deegan, the former Irish soldier who was killed fighting in Ukraine last month, has been recovered.
The 29-year-old’s remains were located on Wednesday by members of Stugna, the Ukrainian special forces unit Mr Deegan served with.
A former member of the Irish Defence Force’s elite Army Ranger Wing, Mr Deegan travelled to Ukraine in 2022 in response to Russia’s invasion.
He was killed in fierce fighting near the city of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region while covering the retreat of his unit.
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The Stugna unit had been deployed to push back incursions by Russian forces which were attempting to recapture the area.
The ongoing fighting in the area made it impossible to recover his remains until now, despite several members of his unit immediately volunteering themselves for the mission.
His body is currently being stored in a morgue in Kharkiv. It will shortly be transported to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv before being prepared for repatriation back to Ireland for burial.
It is understood the Irish embassy in Kyiv has been alerted of the development and has been liaising with the Deegan family in Ireland.
Mr Deegan was previously awarded a medal for bravery by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in recognition of his service recapturing Kupiansk from Russia forces following the initial in 2022 invasion.
He was severely injured in an explosion a short time later as he was travelling in an armoured vehicle. He suffered serious facial injuries, including the loss of an eye and returned to Ireland for medical treatment. Earlier this year, he returned to Ukraine and re-enlisted with the armed forces.
“He was the best soldier I ever served with,” said one man who fought alongside Mr Deegan in Ukraine. “He always wanted to be a soldier, nothing else.”
Mr Deegan, from Co Kildare, joined the Defence Forces in 2014 and became a member of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) just three years later, the youngest soldier ever to qualify for the elite unit. He came from a well-known military family. His father John was previously a member of the ARW and his brother Richard is a serving Air Corps officer.
Mr Deegan was also a keen cyclist in his youth and raced at a high-performance level on the domestic scene.
After leaving the Defence Forces he worked as a firefighter in Athy and as a private military contractor before travelling to Ukraine.
During his initial deployment in Ukraine, he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, which is specifically tasked with special operations missions.
He fought alongside US, Swiss and Bosnian volunteers and was involved in some of the heaviest battles of the war, including the Ukrainian counteroffensive in September 2022 which liberated 12,000 sq km of captured territory.
Body cam footage taken by Mr Deegan in the days before his death last month shows him and his unit engaged in fierce fighting around Kupiansk and escorting a wounded soldier while under heavy fire.
After his death, a fundraising appeal established on behalf of the Deegan family to repatriate his remains quickly raised over €31,000.
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