A former Green Beret was killed in Ukraine during intense fighting around the city of Bakhmut, his family confirmed Tuesday.
Twenty-year military veteran Nick Maimer of Idaho was killed when a Russian artillery strike hit the building he was inside of in Bakhmut, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Perry Blackburn told the Idaho Statesman. Blackburn had recruited the 45-year-old Maimer to Kyiv last May, where he had been training Ukrainian volunteers as they fought against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
BREAKING: A @USArmy special forces veteran from #Idaho is believed dead in #Bakhmut Ukraine combat. The body of retired SFC Nick Maimer, of Boise, was ID’d in Russian video online by his uncle and former colleague. He was 45yo. w/ @sallykrutzig @mawilner https://t.co/aGw5CGDuz4
— Kevin Fixler (@kfixler) May 16, 2023
“From what I understand, he was providing them with firsthand training in that area so that they can continue to do the fight, and he got caught behind enemy lines,” Blackburn told the Idaho Statesman. “It’s just a crazy, crazy time right now. And then having Nick die over there, it’s just brutal.”
Maimer’s remains were identified by Blackburn and his uncle Paul Maimer. A video shared Tuesday by a pro-Russian blogger on Telegram showed Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin with a dead body in Bakhmut. The video shows U.S. documentation appearing to belong to Maimer, and that was the body his uncle and Blackburn identified.
“We’re just trying to get him home for proper burial,” Paul Maimer said to the Idaho Statesman. “I think he’s deserving to be put to rest in a veterans cemetery. He might not have been fighting for our country, but he was fighting for the right reasons.” (RELATED: US Gets 500,000 Artillery Shells On Loan From South Korea To Fill Plummeting Stocks)
Maimer retired from the U.S. Army in 2018 after reaching the rank of Sgt. First Class over a twenty-year career, including time in the Army Special Forces. Two months before Russia invaded Ukraine, he moved to Spain for a job as an English teacher.
Maimer said in a June 2022 interview that he felt compelled to help defend democracy in Ukraine after Russia invaded, so he had his family ship his combat gear to Poland and he departed for battle.
The State Department could not confirm the death of Maimer when asked Tuesday, but cited reports that another American had been killed in conflict. The department has maintained that identifying the deaths of Americans in Ukraine is exceedingly difficult. Maimer is at least the ninth American killed there since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.