On May 22, 2014, at about 04.15 a.m., DPR militants attacked the checkpoint of the 3rd mechanized battalion of the 51st separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, located on the T0509 Vuhledar - Olhynka road between the villages of Olhynka and Blahodatne near the regional landscape park Velykoanadolskyi Forest.
As a result, 18 soldiers of the 51st Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed and 30 others were wounded.
At that time, the Ukrainian army had never experienced such losses in a single battle...
Officers and enlisted men from Rivne, Volyn, Khmelnytsky, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia regions fought their last unequal battle. The youngest of the dead was only 23 years old at the time.
They died as a result of the attack:
- Leonid Oleksandrovych Polinkevich, battalion commander
- Ovcharuk Volodymyr Borysovych, junior lieutenant, platoon commander
- Artemuk Oleksandr Ivanovych, senior sergeant, squad leader
- Yovzyk Dmytro Vasylovych, junior sergeant, deputy commander of a combat vehicle, gunner-operator
- Bondaruk Mykola Petrovych, soldier, gunner
- Hrytsiuk Mykhailo Mykhailovych, soldier, scout
- Zaradyuk Volodymyr Volodymyrovych, soldier, machine gunner
- Lishchuk Vitaliy Leonidovych, soldier, rifleman
- Marynych Vitaliy Petrovych, soldier, scout
- Makhnovets Vitaliy Ivanovych, soldier, grenade launcher
- Nechyporuk Andriy Dmytrovych, soldier, driver-paramedic
- Ozeranchuk Leonid Viktorovych, soldier, scout
- Popov Pavlo Volodymyrovych, soldier, rifleman, assistant grenade launcher
- Prokopchuk Volodymyr Ivanovych, soldier, driver mechanic
- Shkriblyak Dmytro Oleksandrovych, soldier, rifleman
- Bida Yevhen Mykolayovych, senior soldier, grenade launcher
- Kuzmin Lyubomyr Ihorovych, soldier, driver-paramedic
- Rybak Mykhailo Volodymyrovych, soldier
Eternal memory to the defenders of Ukraine!