Well-known TV journalist Ruslan Svirin talks about the untimely death of his colleague, the editor-in-chief of Football magazine, Artem Frankov.
"Artem Frankov, editor-in-chief of the Football weekly, has died. Suddenly, from a stroke. We had known each other since he moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv in the late 90s, and he was introduced at the Republican during a break in some ordinary DC match in the Ukrainian championship by the respected Oleksandr Lypenko, who then joked at all the team's internal games (both of us were standing next to me in that old press box, there were still few journalists, as well as spectators in the stands. It was a Saturday, autumn, and the day was also warm).
Artem was a very bright man. He was a year younger than me. That is, he was 53. From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he recorded life-affirming videos from Obolon about the current situation until the Russians withdrew from the Kyiv area, then returned to football. He began publishing an electronic version of the cult Futbol, of which he was the permanent editor-in-chief. The children were left without a father. The only good thing is that his death was easy, or at least quick.
Now I understand why he explained that he was no longer physically ready for the war on the front line due to his health. And yes, he was an officer (or rather, he had an officer's rank), though a "jacket" officer, a military department of a civilian university. He was happy in his family life. Such people are in the minority and in general it is a rarity in our "cheerful" times. He was a brilliant chess player. Rest in peace, my friend..." Svirin wrote on Facebook.
