One of the first Dnipro Kids has been killed in action. This is his story.

'I imagine the child you were, squinting at the sun'

Misha Tarasov

Today’s long-read article is by the Inquirer’s David Forsyth, who is vice chairman of the Dnipro Kids charity caring for Ukrainian orphanage families here and in Ukraine.

This story is about a young Ukrainian called Misha Tarasov. There is no reason you would have heard of Misha. He was born and lived a long way from Edinburgh and yet his too-short life was entwined with Scotland’s capital, a city he will never see.

Herbert Hoover, the early 20^th century US President and humanitarian, said: “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.”

Misha had just turned 28 when his four-man unit was hit by Russian artillery. One other soldier was killed, the surviving two seriously wounded. Two more candles lit for young lives snuffed out in the grisly epi-centre of Putin’s ghastly war.

Misha was one of the very first children to become a Dnipro Kid, the charity established by Hibs fans following their visit to the Odinkovka state orphanage in the city of Dnipro ahead of the club’s European tie in 2005.

The charity’s support followed him, when Ukraine moved away from large orphanages to family-based models – effectively large foster families. Misha joined one of the first of these new homes, the Hasanskaya family orphanage, the first family-based orphanage to be supported by the charity. His life has been entwined with our short history.