Memorial service held in Coventry for British soldier with Northern Ireland links who died in Ukraine

Liam Love, 24, who grew up in Coventry, was killed by a mortar bomb in Lyman in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine in October last year.

He was laid to rest last November in the County Fermanagh village of Derrygonnelly – the place where his parents live.

Mr Love served with the Royal Anglian Regiment for four years, during which he helped train Ukrainian conscripts following the invasion by Russia in early 2022.

In the month before he was killed, Mr Love sustained injuries after being hit by shrapnel from an artillery shell.

His father, Michael, told BBC Northern Ireland in an interview back in November last year that on October 9 he received a call from a soldier who had been fighting alongside his son to tell him he had been killed in action.

"It was the call I'd hoped I would never have to take, prayed I would never have to take and, to be honest with you, I actually tried to keep it to the back of my mind that it wasn't going to happen," he said.

"During his recovery, one of the things he did say to me was that, 'I'm going back but I will see you at Christmas' so there was a confidence in him that he would see it through to at least Christmas and we would see him again then, but it didn't happen.

"He wanted to be remembered by a simple quote, 'What we do in life echoes in eternity', and that will echo with me.

"He was just a brave soul."

Family and friends were joined by some Ukrainians at the memorial service on Saturday.

Refugee Nataliya Korovina told the BBC: "I can't imagine to lose a son... because my son is only three years younger than Liam was.

"I'm really impressed and proud of Liam and I think that he's just a very good example for others to follow."

Following the service on Saturday, it was scheduled for the family to visit Coventry’s War Memorial Park to see a tree which had been planted in his memory.