Another Italian killed in Ukraine while fighting Russian invaders. His name was Thomas D'Alba, and he was 40 years old. He had been a paratrooper in the Folgore Brigade and had left his profession as a music teacher around two years earlier to enlist on Kiev's side. Vladislav Maistrouk, a Ukrainian digital creator and activist who knew and recently met him, shared the news of his death on social media. "Thomas was a kind and brave man", Maistrouk says. "He fell in battle, in the Sumy region, defending Ukraine and Europe". Two images of the forty-year-old, originally from Legnano near Milan, were posted on Facebook. In one, he's sitting in front of his beloved drum kit's cymbals, while in the other, he's wearing a helmet and camouflage inside a truck and smiling. "He was not a fool", Maistrouk writes in his post. After serving with the Italian paratroopers, he "left the army to pursue his passion and become a music teacher. Then the war in Ukraine began, and Thomas did not want to stand by and watch. He left his well-paying work for a poor salary, despite the hazards; he chose cold exercises in the woods over aperitifs with friends; he preferred a sleeping bag in a trench to quiet nights spent in his own bed". Despite the fact that Italian law bans him from joining a foreign army, dozens of his compatriots are fighting on both sides of the conflict. D'Alba is the seventh Italian soldier killed in action.