'An extremely nice person' - Tributes paid as Ukrainian man named locally as Cork crash victim

A heartbroken business owner has paid tribute to a beloved employee after he lost his life in a car crash in Cork on Friday.

Alexander 'Sasha' Vosniuk, who lost his life in a road tragedy in West Cork last week, has been remembered as an "extremely nice" dear friend and beloved family man after his passing.

The community of Eyries on the Beara Peninsula and the wider West Cork area have come together to support his family in covering the funeral costs after such a sudden tragedy. Alexander was killed after the car he was travelling in crashed into a river on Friday morning.

Mr Vosniuk ran a business in his home country before Russia’s invasion, and moved to Cork with his wife Olena and two of their children two years ago. He has a son who is still in Ukraine, serving in the country’s military in its fight against Russia.

He had reportedly moved his family to Ireland from Ukraine to give them a "better life" and had been working at Beara Top Tyres.

A GoFundMe online fundraiser has been set up to raise money to cover the funeral costs for the late father. Over €6,900 has poured in in donations so far to support Alexander's family.

In a moving post on social media, the owner of Beara Tyres, Damien O’Sullivan, paid a heartfelt tribute to Alexander.

"We lost our co-worker and friend Alexander (Sasha) he left his home with his wife and family for a better life and they became a part of our community. He was an extremely nice person, and would always bring homemade food as gifts to the garage, you couldn’t excite him at work even times I had the hot poker behind him, a lesson we all could learn," he wrote in a heartfelt social media post.

"Thank you Sasha for your friendship and helping me in my tyre shop. Rest easy and your great saying to me when I would say ‘come on, come work Sasha’ you would say - ‘yes yes no problem 5 minutes I smoke, then I fix the problem.' He was 100% correct."

"Connie, Claire and I would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to his wife and children, I would also like to thank the emergency services Coast Guard ambulance and my own colleagues in the fire brigade it was a difficult call out and I’d like to thank them especially for their support."

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