'Forever 21': Dumfries and Galloway remembers Ukrainian student killed defending his homeland

A young man who once sat in a classroom in Dumfries and Galloway has been killed on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, aged 21. Arkadii Petrov, a former pupil of Kirkcudbright Academy, died in action after returning to his home country to fight, and members of the south Scotland community that sheltered him as a teenage refugee are now mourning his loss.

Petrov and his family moved from Ukraine to Dumfries and Galloway following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. According to Peter Kormylo, an archivist at the Ukrainian Prisoner of War chapel in Lockerbie, where Petrov regularly attended services, the teenager arrived in Scotland at around 16 or 17 years old, travelling with his mother and three younger siblings — one brother and two sisters — as refugees.

He was described as a courteous and serious young man who made a lasting impression on everyone he encountered. Kormylo, who met him on several occasions, said Petrov always appeared keen to go back to Ukraine and take part in the fight, even while building a new life thousands of miles from the front line.

His time at Kirkcudbright Academy was brief. Petrov attended the school for only one year, completing his S6 studies, before leaving for Ukraine. Despite the short period he spent there, the school's rector, Anthony Tuffery, said the entire school community was saddened to learn of his death.

Tuffery described Petrov as a polite, respectful and hardworking young man, and said the school wished to convey its deepest sympathies to his family and friends, adding that its thoughts were with them during what he called an incredibly difficult time.

One of Kormylo's most vivid memories of Petrov comes from the Ukrainian chapel near Lockerbie. On the last occasion he recalls seeing the young man there, everyone else had already gone, and Petrov was sitting alone in the chapel writing what appeared at first to be letters. In fact, Kormylo said, they were prayers.

"He was a deep thinker and obviously felt the need to do what many Ukrainians are doing and that's fulfil their patriotic duty," Kormylo said. The memory, he added, showed a young man reflecting seriously on his responsibilities even in a quiet, informal setting far from any battlefield.

The chapel itself has been a focal point for Ukrainians displaced to the south of Scotland since the beginning of the war. BBC reporting published in March 2022 documented how a tiny chapel in Lockerbie began offering practical help to people arriving from Ukraine, and it has remained a centre for prayer, remembrance and community support in the years since.

Kormylo said Petrov's death was sad news for the wider Ukrainian community in the region, many of whom arrived in Scotland as refugees and have since built lives in towns and villages across Dumfries and Galloway.

"He was 21 — he'll be forever 21," Kormylo said. He recalled that Petrov came to Scotland as a teenager with his mother, and that although the family did not know what the future would hold for them, the young man believed in Ukraine's eventual victory.

"He was a teenager maturing here and obviously gathered his own thoughts and decided to make a very adult decision," Kormylo said. "So the community is quite upset, as you would guess, everyone feels this pain."

His death comes as the war in Ukraine continues to dominate international news, with fighting still concentrated in the east of the country where Petrov was killed. Recent coverage has included reports of an arson attack on a defence company supplying Ukraine, which Estonia has blamed on Russia, as well as footage of people escaping a historic building in Kyiv after it was hit by a Russian drone.

For communities in south Scotland, the loss is felt far beyond the Ukrainian diaspora. Petrov's time at school, his years as a teenager in Dumfries and Galloway and his attendance at the Lockerbie chapel meant that ties to his home region were formed and maintained, even after he had left for Ukraine.

His death is a reminder that the war reaches far beyond the battlefield, and that some of its most direct victims arrived in Britain as children and teenagers, learned to speak English, sat S6 exams and prayed in a small chapel in Lockerbie before answering a call to duty.

Petrov's family and friends, along with the Ukrainian community in the south of Scotland and the staff and pupils of Kirkcudbright Academy, are now left to come to terms with the loss of a young man remembered for his courtesy, his seriousness of purpose and his determination to return to help defend his homeland.