To remember and to honor — this is vital. Even when recognition comes only after death.
Stepan was just 16. He played football, dreamed, and lived like any other teenager. In 2014, occupiers brutally tortured him to death for nothing more than a blue-and-yellow ribbon on his backpack.
He did not submit, he did not renounce his Homeland — and forever became a symbol of loyalty and resilience, a symbol of Ukrainian Donetsk region.
The title of Hero is not only recognition of his courage but also of the pain of all Donetsk region, which pays a terrible price for the right to remain Ukrainian.
Eternal memory and eternal glory to Hero of Ukraine Stepan Chubenko!