A former U.S. Navy marine who left his military post in 2019 was killed Thursday while fighting in Ukraine, friends and officials said.
Daniel Swift died from wounds sustained last week during fighting in Dnipro, a city that Russian forces recently attacked in a brutal rocket attack, an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Swift’s death is the sixth known American casualty on Ukraine’s frontline because the Russian invasion began almost a 12 months ago.
Adam Thiemann – Former U.S. Army Ranger who kept in touch with Swift after fighting alongside him in Ukraine – said Rolling Stone that Swift was injured on the night of January 14.
Thiemann said Russian soldiers fired an anti-personnel grenade at Swift and two other soldiers.
While his colleagues are recovering, Swift was left in critical condition with a severe head injury. He died Thursday morning from an enormous brain injury, Rolling Stone magazine reported.
Swift showed as much as fight in Ukraine with no equipment of his own aside from military flair and enthusiasm, Thiemann said.
![Local residents clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multi-story building, leaving many people under the rubble in Dnieper, Ukraine.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/AP23019659821551.jpg?w=1024)
“He only had one uniform … He used duct tape to stay the armor plates to his chest and back to hit the goal until he got the plate carrier,” Thiemann said.
“After our SEAL Team Six left, he led our team in Crimea, Severodonetsk and Svyatohirsk and continued to guide the team after I left. He was one in all the hardest and most tactically proficient men I’ve ever met.
A U.S. Navy spokesman confirmed that Swift died in Ukraine, but said he was not fighting on behalf of his former military branch.
“We cannot speculate why the previous sailor was in Ukraine,” the Navy said.
The State Department also confirmed the death of an American in Ukraine, but didn’t discover the deceased as Swift.
![A Navy SEAL special forces operator, front and associates during a joint U.S.-Cyprus military exercise in Limassol Port on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/AP21253325993239.jpg?w=1024)
The previous Petty Officer 1st Class left his San Diego, California position in March 2019. Swift joined the armed forces in 2005 and was assigned to the SEAL unit in 2017. In 2015, he left voluntarily, but returned the next 12 months and returned to his SEAL until his defection.
After he was incapacitated, Naval Naval Command stripped him of his trident badge.
At the least five other Americans are known to have died on the frontline in Ukraine. American officials have repeatedly discouraged Americans from fighting in Europe, despite sending weapons and military vehicles to Ukraine.