Massimiliano died in Ukraine, he was helping the wounded

(ANSA) – SAN BENEDETTO DEL TRONTO, 01 NOV – “You flew away a hero for me and for all the people you saved in these years”. The words of his daughter Aurora on social media to remember Massimiliano Galletti, 59 years old, the rescuer who died in Kiev last Monday, after being injured a month ago by splinters from an ‘RPG’ shot, a portable anti-tank grenade launcher. Galletti, from the Marche region of San Benedetto del Tronto (Ascoli Piceno), was not a foreign fighter but provided assistance to fighters at the front in a location not far from the Ukrainian capital. In the rear, where he worked, the fatal grenade hit and death after a month in a coma in hospital. This is the first Italian, in this case a paramedic, to die on the Ukrainian front. “They were 30 days of total darkness” also for his wife Donatella Scarponi: “I knew that my husband was dead but not where, how, with whom, where was he?”. The distraught woman had received confirmation from the police station of her husband’s death following very serious injuries suffered in the explosion of a grenade. “He wasn’t a fighter – he confirms – because he wouldn’t even have known how to use a war rifle”. The mayor of San Benedetto Antonio Spazzafumo, who yesterday met Galletti’s wife and two sisters of the victim, is taking an interest in the return home of the body of the 59-year-old who was a municipal employee on leave for this humanitarian mission: he was a ‘paramedic rescuer‘ ‘, engaged with dog units, in the search for people injured or dead during the fighting. The Ascoli Police Headquarters, which is in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was informed of the matter and diplomacy was activated. “The Italian part of the process for the return is complete, yesterday the time seemed short; but there are still issues in Ukraine to be resolved”, mayor Spazzafumo, who had met Galletti a few months ago in the offices of the municipal building, tells ANSA , and had spoken to us for a few moments before leaving for Ukraine. “You have always been my point of reference – writes Aurora, Galletti’s daughter – the person I knew I could always count on as a child, I dreamed in the future of having a husband like you who always treated me like a princess. You always found the right words to comfort me even when I didn’t want to hear you, you were there for me in this moment that you are not there more than ever I need you, but I know that you flew away as a hero the hero you have always been for me and for all the people you have saved in these years I am proud of you as a father, but above all as a man you will always be in my heart”. About two years ago, the 59-year-old went to Poland for the first time, with the Italian Civil Protection, to the border areas with Ukraine to help displaced people fleeing the war. Having returned to San Benedetto del Tronto he had arranged with a Sardinian friend to return independently to Ukraine. He then provided assistance as a paramedic in the rear of the front. Contact with him had been interrupted for about a month after the explosion of a grenade in an area of ​​violent fighting between Russians and Ukrainians. On October 28th, he died due to devastating injuries. (HANDLE).