Interview with Military Chaplain Yuriy Kazmirenko, Conducted in Kyiv, Ukraine, 9 August 2018 (UKR)

Yuriy Kazmirenko was born in 1972 in Stavyshche, a village in the Zhytomyr region and was educated at the paratroopers’ academy, Kyiv National Economic University, and the Faculty of Law. Kazmirenko served in army airborne and reconnaissance units before going on to receive his religious education at Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy, after which he served as a priest at the Svyatoduhovsky Temple in Kyiv prior to the start of the war. Kazmirenko has served as a military chaplain attached to the 20th Dnipropetrovsk Territorial Defense Battalion since 2016 and previously served between 2014 and 2015 as a priest and ambulance driver in the Aidar Battalion.