RIVNE, Ukraine (CNN) -- Camouflage-clad militiamen hoist AK-47 assault rifles to their shoulders and blast off a 21-shot salute. As the muzzles flash, another squad of ultra-nationalist fighters chants, "Our hero is not dead. Glory to him." A few yards away, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest swings an incense burner. A mother and father weep over the coffin of their dead son. The killing of radical nationalist leader Oleksandr Muzychko, also known by his nickname "Sasha the White" was enough to make shaven-headed, hardened paramilitary men cry. "He was like a brother to me and my comrades. But that bastard Putin murdered him," said Anatoly Valsyuk, as he choked back tears.
@highlight
Radical Ukrainian nationalist leader Oleksandr Muzychko was killed Monday night
@highlight
Followers hailed him as a national hero and a Robin Hood for Ukrainians
@highlight
Paramilitary units under Muzychko sparked the alarm of Russia's Vladimir Putin
@highlight
Putin says he fears these "fascists" will attack ethnic-Russians living in Ukraine
And dozens of men who once marched to @placeholder's command now filed past his grave, tossing handfuls of damp earth onto his coffin.