Participant of the Regional Competition "Young Person of the Year – 2025" in the Nomination "Defender of Law and Order" Dmytro Solovii
Dmytro Solovii was born in 2001 in the city of Avdiivka. From a young age, he dreamed of becoming a law enforcement officer. The impetus for this was his acquaintance with Hennadii Yudin, who at the time worked as a juvenile police officer in the city.
After completing his secondary education, Dmytro enrolled at the Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs, where he received a higher education degree in a specialty related to law enforcement. He began his service in the National Police of Ukraine in 2018 as a district police officer in his native Avdiivka.
A special stage in Dmytro's life was his service as part of the "White Angel" crew, which operates in frontline territories. As a member of the crew, Dmytro performs an extremely important mission: the evacuation of civilians who find themselves in danger due to military actions. He has participated in hundreds of missions, during which he and his team saved the lives of people with limited mobility, the elderly, children, and their parents who were in the epicenter of the war. The most difficult evacuations took place just a few hundred meters from the enemy. Dmytro and his partner managed to organize evacuations even from the occupied part of the city, saving dozens of people from death.
"My motivation is the gratitude of the people we save. It's my duty, and I understand that it needs to be done because there are wounded, there are people who cannot leave on their own. I plan to continue working in the ranks of the National Police because our work is not just a service; it is a service to people and to our Homeland," says Dmytro Solovii.
Every mission undertaken by the police officers is fraught with mortal danger. There were cases when the "White Angels" came under air strikes. Once, the crew arrived to retrieve a person from under the rubble who had died as a result of shelling. At that moment, an aerial bomb hit a nine-story building nearby. Fortunately, the law enforcement officers were not harmed.
"Every day we see how Russia is destroying our cities, and how civilians are being killed and wounded. The most terrifying thing I saw during my work was the shelling of a bus stop at the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant in May 2022. It was a terrible sight. There were many dead then. There was panic and despair. But we managed, we controlled our emotions, and we acted clearly and in a coordinated manner. In the moment when I am providing aid to the wounded, I don't think about anything else but doing everything correctly so that the person does not die. After all, the most important thing is to save a life," Dmytro recounts.
Dmytro has one dream: to bring peace back to his native land, where he grew up and where he continues to fight for the lives of his fellow citizens. His story is one of dedication to his work, courage, and self-sacrifice. Dmytro Solovii is not just a police officer; he is a true guardian angel for those who are trapped by war.