“No one but us”

May 13 became a black page in the history of Zhytomyr region. Namely on this day while fulfilling a military task in the environs of the population center Oktiabrske, 20 kilometers away from Kramatorsk, the paratroopers of the 95th Airmobile Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were attacked by terrorists. The separatists were shooting from grenade launcher and shooting densely from light weapons. Over 40 attackers were waiting in an ambush along a river. The military men accepted the battle, as a result of which six of our soldiers were killed. Five of them are residents from Zhytomyr oblast, and one is from Kharkiv oblast.

On May 16 in a military unit in Korbutivka District the residents of Zhytomyr region bid adieu to the killed paratroopers of the 95th Airmobile Brigade – Captain Vadym Zabrodsky, Senior Lieutenant Vitalii Dulchyk, and Junior Sergeant Vitalii Rudy. Two other killed military men, Oleh Slavytsky and Serhii Khrushch, were immediately taken home by their families, to Ruzhyn raion. Fellow villagers, relatives, and friends bid adieu to the killed 20-year-old Oleksandr Yakymov, senior pointer of the mortar platoon of the 95th Airmobile Brigade, in his home village Kulynychi in Kharkiv oblast. Oleksandr’s pregnant wife, awaiting a baby to be born any minute now, became a widow.

In Zhytomyr top state officials of the oblast and the city, clergy, military men, and many Zhytomyr residents who did not know the killed men, but came to pay tribute to them, bid last adieu to the military men. The coffins with the heroes of the unannounced war to the cries “Glory to Heroes!” and “Heroes don’t die!” were brought into the premises of the military unit, where their families wailed over them, and the priests performed a funeral service.

On behalf of the Ministry of Defense, the head of the General Headquarters, officers, and generals of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the acting head of Human Resources Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Major General Oleksandr Rozmaznin expressed sincerest condolences to the relatives and friends of the heroes. “The boys gave their lives for Ukraine to become united and independent,” he said, “Five best sons of Zhytomyr region fulfilled their military duty to the end. The enemy will pay for every tear of a child, wife, and mother of the killed.”

Who are these courageous warriors who fought against the artful enemy? The 35-year-old Captain Vadym Zabrodsky, deputy head of the headquarters of the Airmobile Paratroop Battalion of the 95th Airmobile Brigade is a resident of Zhytomyr. His relatives, friends, and acquaintances still cannot believe that this decent man is dead. Two daughters of nine and ten years were left fatherless. Namely they were wearing the awards of their father during the funeral ceremony.

In deep mourning the relatives inclined over the coffin of Junior Sergeant, Commander of Department of Airmobile Platoon Vitalii Rudy. His two-year-old son Yehor was left fatherless, and his wife Lesia became a widow. The 30-year-old man was living with his family in Holovyne village, Cherniakhiv raion, he was mobilized to the army.

The 28-year-old Senior Lieutenant Vitalii Dulchyk, commander of the Airmobile Paratroop Platoon, is from Berdychiv. So, on May 17, next day after people bid farewell to him in Zhytomyr on the territory of the military unit, he was commemorated in the garrison house of officers in Berdychiv. He is the only son of his parents, a graduate of the 14th Collegium, he was a kind man, a good officer, and he died like a hero, – that’s what the residents of Berdychiv tell about him. On April 30 almost two weeks before his death Vitalii Dulchyk turned 28. This is the first loss Berdychiv has in the war in the east of Ukraine, but it is no less painful. And people want the most this loss to be the last.

The residents of Ruzhyn raion have buried two heroic fellow villagers. In the village Zoriane the fellow villager attended the funeral of 39-year-old Oleh Slavytsky. A reserve officer, he was mobilized to the army. He worked at the local village company, together with his wife Svitlana they were bringing up a 17-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter, who have now been left fatherless.

Residents of the village Verkhivnia bid farewell to Private Serhii Khrushch. He was known as a sincere man and wonderful husband and father. Namely on the day of Serhii’s funeral his wife Liudmyla turned 32. The woman cannot recollect herself because of the shock and the pain of the loss. She and Serhii have three children. The oldest one, 11-year-old Tetianka, is trying to support her mother and misses her dad very much. On social network the girl wrote: “He never refused to help people. He offered a helping hand to everyone in need. I have always been proud of my father! Now I have said farewell to him forever!”

The Acting Head of the Headquarters of the 13th Airmobile Battalion Captain Ihor Korzhovsky said at the commemoration of the warriors in Zhytomyr, the slogan of Ukrainian Airmobile Forces is “No one but us.” They always keep to it: they had a combat mission and they went to fulfill it. They are serving Ukraine decently and faithfully. “The death of their comrades, the cunning and cynic assault,” Ihor Korzhovsky said, “and the moods of the military men in the east of Ukraine are very serious. The fellow soldiers of the killed will prove with their actions that these deaths were not in vain.”

It is awful, but this Monday was another black day for Zhytomyr region – another military man was killed. “On May 19 at 4:30 a.m. a block post of Ukrainian military men in Sloviansk raion was attacked by mortar fire. The terrorists acted in a traditional way, cynically and artfully, from an ambush located on the territory of a kindergarten near the city’s railway station. The terrorists provoked the military men to shoot back, to make the Ukrainian military men ruin the kindergarten with shooting,” the press release of the Ministry of Defense reads. As a result of mortar fire, Hennadii Beliak, a soldier of the Mortar Subdivision of the Airmobile Brigade died of wounds.

Eternal memory to the heroes.