American Teacher Killed By Russian Gunfire After Being Trapped In Ukraine Hospital

An American citizen, who was staying in Ukraine to take care of his wife, was confirmed to have died on Thursday, March 17 after he was killed by Russian snipers while standing on a bread line to get food.

Sixty-seven-year-old Jimmy Hill, a resident of Idaho whose wife is Ukrainian, had been staying in the country during the war due to his wife’s multiple sclerosis that was being treated in a hospital in the city of Chernihiv, according to the Daily Beast.

However, while he and nine other civilians were standing in the bread line of the city to get food and water, Russian snipers reportedly opened fire at them and killed all ten, leaving their bodies out there to be found by the local police later, the New York Post reported.

His sister, Cheryl Hill Gordon, confirmed the death to the press today.

“My brother Jimmy Hill was killed yesterday in Chernihiv, Ukraine,” she said. “He was waiting in a bread line with several other people when they were gunned down by Russian military snipers. His body was found in the street by the local police.”

Hill worked as a lecturer at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, though he would periodically return to the United States to ensure that he met the requirements for a Ukrainian visa. His wife, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, had finally found a hospital for her in January when the war first broke out.

“It's horribly sad hanging on to a hope and a thread and a dream and getting to the hospital,” an unnamed friend of Hill said. “That gives you a little bit of extra hope and then being thrust into literally the middle of hell… It feels just almost surreal… they are being intensely bombed.”

The Russian government has denied the killing of Hill and the other nine, calling it a hoax; however, the Ukrainian government posted a photograph of Hill’s passport on their Telegram channel to confirm the man’s death.

“He finally got her into the hospital in January,” Hill Gordon said. “Once the war broke out, he made the decision to stay.”