A month later, he voted for the first time, casting a ballot in the presidential election for Vladimir Putin, who had already been in power for six years when Yermolenko was born in 2006.
By late March Yermolenko had completed a basic two-week military training, and he was sent to Berdychi in eastern Ukraine where Russian forces were engaged in a devastating assault as part of its spring offensive.
There, on 4 April, during a storming of a Ukrainian position, Yermolenko found himself separated from his unit, surrounded by intense enemy fire.
Before losing contact, Yermolenko reportedly radioed his base: "This is it guys. I am doomed." Last week his family gathered in a small town in central Russia to receive Yermolenko's casket, which was draped in the Russian flag.
Yermolenko is the only recorded Russian casualty so far to have been born in 2006, making him the youngest known soldier to have died since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine more than two years ago.
"He couldn't wait to join the fighting, so when he came of age he took his chance," said his brother Maksim, 25, in a telephone interview from Krasnoufimsk, to where he returned from the frontlines to attend the funeral.
Maksim had signed up for the army first, in 2022, shortly after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.
"He wanted to follow my example and enlist. I warned him that war isn't pretty... but mentally he was ready," he said of his brother.
This story is from the May 30, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the May 30, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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