War is never the solution, however, that doesn't stop current events, which this time have brought unfortunate news to the community. Unfortunately, Metro Exodus animator Andrii Korzinkin, also known as "Nizrok", passed away after succumbing to his wounds following a combat mission. The sad news was announced by Leonid Stepanov, his former co-worker at 4A Games via Twitter.

Stepanov described his former studio mate as a kind and helpful person with incredible talent and passion for animation. He also shared that he learned about the news of Andrii's passing through a LinkedIn post made by a mutual friend, however, he confirmed the information after another friend of Korzinkin tweeted about attending the funeral.

When interviewed by PC Gamer he mentioned that he couldn’t believe what he was reading.

"My first reaction was denial. That this is impossible, that this could not happen to Andrii and even later when I was doing reposts of this terrible news myself, I hoped that it would all turn out to be a mistake. But then information about this was confirmed by other people. It was very painful. Now it remains only to keep wonderful memories of Andrii, pass them to other people and do everything so that his death is not in vain.”

A very loved element of his team

Former work-mates also shared their condolences and remembered Korzinkin as a good friend, a talented animator and a person that will be greatly missed by all his co-workers.

Korzinkin voluntarily enlisted to fight the Russian invasion in the middle of this year, like many other developers like STALKER 2 devs, where a video of them training with the Armed Forces of Ukraine surfed in June.

Source