Yevhen Obedinsky was a long-time captain of Mariupol’s team and played for Ukraine’s national team, skippering his country for part of his international career.
His father Oleksandr, a successful water polo athlete himself, was his coach.
“He was vivacious, sociable, persistent and never gave up,” Ukraine’s water polo association told the BBC.
The last time Obedinsky competed at tournament level was in 2020, when he competed in the Cup of Ukraine.
He stopped playing after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Obedinsky, 39, was killed on 17 March during Russian shelling on the city of Mariupol.
“He was a sensitive son, brother, father, friend and excellent athlete,” his father said on social media after his death. “He was a great lover of life, never gave up and never complained about life, no matter how difficult it was for him.
“He always had one answer. ‘Don’t worry dad, I’ll be fine.’ We had a very warm and trusting relationship and we treated each other with love. It’s a terrible pain and irreparable loss.”
The family endured more heartache when his 12-year-old daughter Kira was injured trying to escape the city.
She was taken to a hospital in Russian-occupied Donetsk and, according to doctors, was set to be transferred to an orphanage in Russia. Kira still had her father’s mobile phone, however, and managed to use Instagram to contact her grandfather to let him know her whereabouts.
After efforts by the Ukrainian government, her grandfather was permitted to collect her in April, making a four-day journey that involved flights to Moscow via Poland and Turkey, a train to Rostov and a car journey to Donetsk. Together they returned to Ukraine the same way.
Back home, Kira told CNN, external how she had been forced to leave her father’s body beneath the rubble of their shelled home before a landmine left her peppered with shrapnel as she tried to flee the Russian forces in her home city.