“I learnt the information since yesterday [Saturday] afternoon, and only this morning did I receive a response from the young man’s mother. She confirmed what had happened. She received the information from there. I had received the information through personal sources here,” he said.
However, the minister added, “We do not have definitive official confirmation. But it is unofficial.” José Cesário stated that the mother had requested consular assistance for the transfer of the body and that the Portuguese Embassy in Kyiv would “do everything it can” to this end.
“(The transfer is) the mother’s main concern. We want to help her bring the body home. I have already asked our embassy to do everything it can to try to reach the body, but it is very difficult because the area, at least according to the information we have, is controlled by the Russians,” he explained.
Asked if he had information about other Portuguese citizens fighting in Ukraine, José Cesário said there was “no confirmation” of the numbers.
“We know there are cases there, but we don’t have full confirmation because these are people who are there and then leave and don’t inform us. They don’t have to inform us because they are there on a purely personal basis,” he concluded.
Platform with Lusa
