Ukrainian special forces troops who fought alongside former Irish Army ranger Robert Deegan have described him as a highly skilled soldier who was killed by Russian artillery fire.
The 29-year-old from Newbridge, Co Kildare, died earlier this month on the frontline in eastern Ukraine in a fierce battle for an industrial plant that his comrades captured just days later.
The Stugna special forces group, a part of the Ukrainian military, has nominated Deegan (29) for a posthumous medal to honour his service to Ukraine, and his closest friend in the unit said Deegan had hoped to settle in the country after fighting a Russian invasion that he saw as “vile” and “unjust”.
Deegan is the latest Irish citizen to be killed fighting in Ukraine, following the deaths of Rory Mason (23) from Dunboyne, Co Meath in 2022; Finbar Cafferkey (46) from Achill, Co Mayo; Graham Dale (45), originally from Raheny in Dublin in 2023; and Alex Ryzhuk (20) from Rathmines, Dublin in August 2024.
The Co Kildare native was previously awarded a medal for his role in the liberation of parts of the eastern Kharkiv region in September 2022 when he was a member of Ukraine’s international legion – seven months after the war began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A month later he lost an eye when his armoured vehicle was blown up, but after recovering in Ireland he returned to Kyiv this year and joined Stugna, a special forces unit that undertakes dangerous missions.
“Robert’s group was involved in urban combat in very close contact with the enemy, and his extensive experience and tactical skills were very useful there,” says the commander of Stugna, who goes by the call sign “Linux”.
“He was also very fit and had excellent stamina in urban fighting,” adds the commander of a Stugna combat group who uses the call sign “Karatist”.
“After one battle he said he’d basically been running through the streets fighting a tank, and he could handle it. He also knew perfectly how to use Nato-standard weapons.”
That skirmish with a tank was in Vovchansk, the border town in Kharkiv region in the east where Deegan would be killed on September 17th in fighting for a sprawling factory that the Russians tried to turn into a stronghold. (Earlier media reports had incorrectly put the date of his death as September 19th.)
During the summer he took part in a complex and dangerous amphibious raid on Russian forces occupying the Kinburn Spit in the Black Sea. The operation involved Stugna and other special forces groups overseen by Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency.
“Robert’s role was in training our fighters for this operation. He taught them how to pilot boats that we received from some western partners. During the operation itself, he was in one of the support groups that provided backup to those who went directly on to the Kinburn Spit,” says Linux.
“Stugna is not a standard military unit. We are given special tasks and objectives, which makes them interesting,” says the commander. “They are different every time and require different training and present different challenges. Robert stayed with us, so I suppose he liked it and found like-minded people who he was comfortable with.”
As Linux talks, Karatist takes a call from Alex, a fluent English speaker who was probably Deegan’s best friend in the unit and who wants to share some memories of him.
“It’s still hard for me to talk about him in the past tense because we were very close,” says Alex on the call from the Vovchansk area, where heavy fighting and Russian air strikes continue.
“He was a true friend, like the brother I never had. He taught me a lot, being a military professional from the Irish special forces, and shared a lot with me. I really thank him for that.”
I want the Irish nation to be proud of Rob because you won’t find many such people around the world these days
— Deegan's friend Alex
Alex – who does not want his surname to be published for security reasons – remembers Deegan as a “very bright, very pure personality” with whom he discussed life, the world and their beliefs “for hours and hours before bedtime in the barracks”.
“As a warrior and a man and a Christian, he saw the unjustness, the vileness of the invasion by the Russian Federation,” says Alex. There was no question for him about where he should be. The motivation came from his world view – he followed the warrior’s path, and this was the clearest way to follow it.”
Deegan, who came from a well-known military family and was the youngest soldier ever to qualify for the Army Ranger Wing, was happy in Ukraine and intended to make it his home, his friend says.
“Most definitely he was planning on staying here. We talked a lot about the situation in the world and he told me he liked Ukraine very much – the people and the values and traditions,” says Alex. “He called Ukraine his home. I even helped him to look for an apartment in Kyiv.”
Alex last saw Deegan just before his final mission last month.
Russian forces had seized part of Vovchansk in May during a renewed assault on Kharkiv region, and occupied a large aggregate plant consisting of about 30 buildings that could have served as a fortified base for their operations in the area.
Heavy fighting devastated the town in the following months, as Ukrainian troops surrounded the plant and tightened their grip on the Russians inside. It remained extremely dangerous for Ukrainian soldiers, however, as powerful Russian artillery and air strikes pounded their positions.
[ The final days of Robert Deegan, a former Irish special forces soldier in UkraineOpens in new window ]
Both sides began using drones to resupply their troops by air, but ammunition and weapons could still only be delivered by soldiers running a gauntlet of gunfire and shelling to reach their comrades.
Linux says Deegan was part of a four-man Stugna team tasked with taking such supplies to a position in Vovchansk and covering the withdrawal of the group they were relieving.
On September 17th, as they moved on foot to the designated location, he was killed instantly by a Russian artillery shell. Another soldier died later. Two survived the shelling.
A week later, Ukrainian intelligence said Stugna and other special forces units had retaken control of the Vovchansk aggregate plant, killing or capturing dozens of enemy soldiers in the process.
[ Irish man killed fighting for Ukraine was ‘true to his principles’, says familyOpens in new window ]
Russian bombardment of the surrounding area is still too intense for Deegan’s body to be recovered, however.
The plant “acted as a Russian stronghold, enabling tactical operations on the Vovcha river”, British military intelligence said in a report on battlefield developments.
“Its loss will likely limit opportunities for Russian ground forces to advance in Kharkiv [region]. Ukrainian control of the plant will likely facilitate further counteroffensives in the north of the city to push [Russian forces] back towards the ... border.”
In Kyiv, Linux says he still has phone messages from Deegan asking “Yak spravy?” (“how’s it going?”) and using other Ukrainian phrases that he learned.
“He was motivated to fight for freedoms and values that are shared widely in Ukraine and Ireland. And as a professional military man, the injury he had suffered before was no reason to give up, to show weakness or lay down his arms,” says Linux.
“When he joined us, we asked him whether maybe he had already done enough to defend Ukraine. But he said no, he wanted to carry on and see it through.”
On the line from the Vovchansk area, Alex says Ukraine “will always remember” Deegan’s sacrifice.
“First and foremost, I would like to thank the Irish nation for bringing up such a man, such a warrior – especially his father, his mother and his brother,” he says.
“And I want the Irish nation to be proud of Rob because you won’t find many such people around the world these days,” says his friend Alex.
“Someone who with such dedication and self-sacrifice goes to another country’s war and in an instant considers it to be his home, and who lays down his life for our country and our cause.”
On Monday: Harry McGee speaks to an Irish-based Ukrainian soldier, who leads a special operations unit on the frontline with Russia
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