Sixteen days earlier, Oleksandr Abramenko was in China, celebrating his silver medal — the only medal of any kind won by Ukraine at the Beijing Winter Games.
Abramenko, a top aerialist in freestyle skiing, a five-time Olympian and the country’s flag-bearer for the opening ceremony, garnered more attention after the event, when a photograph of his hug with a Russian rival was widely circulated.
On Friday night in Kyiv, Abramenko, 33, was in the parking garage of his apartment building with his wife, Alexandra, and their 2-year-old son, Dmitry.
Thousands of people have been attempting to flee the city, leading to large crowds and chaos at Kyiv’s main train station as Ukraine’s military said that the Russian army’s primary objective was to encircle the capital.