43-year-old Mykola Berbenko was killed on August 13, 2025, in the village of Serednie, Kramatorsk district. A Russian shell exploded near him.
Mykola lived in the village of Serednie. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, the village had a population of about 80 people. When the war reached Serednie and was followed by temporary occupation, almost no one remained. However, Mykola did not leave, as he and his partner had a large household, including goats and rabbits, which they had no one to leave behind.
Mykola regularly called his mother. August 8, 2025, was the last time they spoke, she recalls.
“Later, the head of the community called and said that my son had been killed on August 13. He said that Mykola had gone to a place in the village where there was mobile coverage. He was probably trying to call me. And then something struck. No one could provide him with help — neither an ambulance nor the police could reach that area,” said his mother, Svitlana.
She was told that her son’s body was wrapped in a blanket and buried in the yard. Exhumation will be possible only after the end of hostilities.
Mykola was born in the settlement of Oleksandrivka, Kramatorsk district. His father died early, and his mother raised him and five other children on her own. As an adult, Mykola worked as a livestock caretaker on a farm.
“I don’t even know who he took after: he could wash his own clothes, cook, knew how to bake buns and bread. Everything he touched thrived, he brought everything into order. He helped everyone in the village — in the gardens, mowing grass, cleaning the cemetery. When houses burned due to shelling, he helped put out the fires, because the fire brigade did not come to Serednie. When people died, he also helped — digging graves and burying the deceased,” his mother recalled.
Mykola Berbenko is survived by his mother, four sisters, and a brother who serves in the military.
At 9:00 a.m. — a nationwide moment of silence.
The Donetsk Regional Military Administration and the Memorial platform Killed by Russia honor the residents of Donetsk region killed by Russian forces.