Senior Private Yurii Pichurkin was killed on 23 March 2022 near the village of Stepove in the Luhansk region by a bullet from an enemy sniper. He was 36 years old.
Yurii was born on 13 May 1985 in the city of Sloviansk. He graduated from School No. 1 and later from the Kramatorsk Institute of Economics and Humanities, where he obtained a Master’s degree in psychology.
From 2018, he served in the ‘Donbas’ Special Purpose Battalion of the 15th Separate Sloviansk Regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine, which was reorganised into the 18th Sloviansk Brigade in 2023. He was a senior machine-gunner.
The defender was buried in Sloviansk.
Yurii was posthumously awarded the Order ‘For Courage’, 3rd class.
9.00 am — a nationwide minute’s silence. The Donetsk Regional Military Administration and the ‘Memorial to Heroes’ platform are commemorating the fallen defenders from the Donetsk region.