Ukrainian actor Pasha Lee, 33, killed while defending country against Russian forces

Ukrainian actor Pasha Lee has been killed in Irpin, a city in Ukraine, as Russia continues its invasion of the country. He was 33.

The actor was killed on March 6. According to local reports and Ukraine's Odesa International Film Festival Facebook account, the movie star had "joined the ranks of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to protect the country from Russian occupiers."

Lee was killed "as a result of shelling by Russian occupiers," the festival organisers said.

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Lee's final Instagram post was on Friday, two days before his demise. The post displayed an image of him in Irpin, dressed in a camo army uniform.

"For the last 48 hours there is an opportunity to sit down and take a picture of how we are being bombed, and we are smiling because we will manage and everything will be UKRAINE. WE ARE WORKING!!!" he captioned his post (translated).

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Lee was a well-known film and dubbing actor, singer and composer. He was active in Kyiv's Koleso theatre and starred in several films and commercials.

Film credits include Valentyn Vasyanovych's The Pit (2006), Lyubomyr Levytsky's Shadows of Unforgotten Ancestors, Zvychayna sprava (2012), also by Valentyn Vasyanovych, Oleksey Shaparev's The Fight Rules (2016) and Valentyn Shpakov's Meeting of classmates (2019) among others.

According to Deadline, he also did voiceover dubbing for the Ukrainian versions of movies like The Hobbit and The Lion King.

One of his last works was in the television series Provincial (2021).