Tributes have been paid to a combat medic and mother, Olga Semidyanova, who was killed battling Russian troops in Ukraine to help repel Putin’s invasion.

Per media reports, she was was fatally injured during a firefight in the city near Donetsk in the south of the country, however, she continued fighting after much of her unit had been killed.

The 48-year-old had six children but also had adopted six more children from a local orphanage.

She lived in the city of Marhanets which was about 150 miles away from where she was killed earlier this month.

According to the deceased family, she was killed by a shot to her stomach but her body has yet to be recovered.

The medic, who had the honorary title ‘Mother Heroine’, had served in the military since 2014 and was killed on the border between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia Kyiv Independent reported on March 3.

The title ‘Mother Heroine’ was given to women who have had more than five children.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the country’s Interior Ministry, told the Sun: ‘She was slain in a confrontation with Russian thugs.

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‘Even when she believed her regiment might not survive, she emphasised her desire to protect the country until the end. She is a national hero. She is a hero to me.’

Ukrainians have also begun paying their respects on social media as news of her death has been reported.