Mariupol resident Hryhorii Bahachenko was killed on March 15, 2022, as a result of a mortar shelling attack. He was 38 years old.
During the full-scale invasion, Hryhorii lived with his family in a private house in the Kalmiuskyi district of the city. He barricaded the windows, and the family hid inside the house during the shelling.
They rarely went outside. But when electricity and water were cut off, Hryhorii and his neighbors began fetching water from nearby streams. Later, humanitarian aid started being delivered to residential areas, and local residents would gather wherever the aid trucks arrived. Hryhorii never returned from one of those trips.
“My husband and two neighbors went to get humanitarian aid. At the intersection of Nikopolskyi Avenue and Metalurhiv Avenue, they came under shelling. They hid under the archway of a building, but a mortar shell exploded nearby. Passing cars took them to different hospitals. Hryhorii underwent surgery at Hospital No. 1. He had shrapnel wounds to his right side with damage to internal organs. He lost a lot of blood and died the same day at around 9:00 p.m. He was an honorary blood donor. The last time he donated blood was on February 28, 2022. Perhaps it was fate: for more than 10 years his blood saved other people’s lives, but in the end there was not enough blood to save his own,” his wife Natalia said.
Hryhorii was born and raised in Mariupol. He worked as a train compiler at the Illich Iron and Steel Works. In his free time, he was involved in dog breeding and owned a kennel of working dogs. Together with his wife, he was raising their daughter.
“Hryhorii was a cheerful and positive person, a role model for our daughter, and an ideal husband. He was very intelligent and well-read, always able to find topics for conversation even with people he had just met. Whenever someone needed help, he was always ready to support them. He constantly sought opportunities to learn and improve his skills in different fields — whether as an auto mechanic, roofer, or dog handler,” his wife recalled.
Hryhorii was buried under a number. The location of his grave was only identified in August 2022.
He is survived by his wife, daughter, father, and sister.
At 9:00 a.m. — a nationwide minute of silence. Donetsk Regional Military Administration and the Memorial platform commemorate the residents of Donetsk region killed by Russians.