Junior Lieutenant Taras Matviyiv was a platoon leader with Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Infantry Brigade.
Before the war, he worked as a journalist in Lviv Oblast and participated in the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution that ended Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency.
He volunteered to fight in Donbas and joined the battle at the ruined Donetsk Airport. In addition to being actively involved in local politics of his home community — he was an elected member of the district council in the town of Zhidachiv in Lviv Oblast — Matviyiv decided to enroll in an Armed Forces academy to become an active duty military officer.
Junior Lieutenant Taras Matviyiv, the Ukrainian military officer killed in action in Donbas on July 10, 2020.
On the evening of July 10, a splash of fighting erupted between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed militants near the key front-line town of Troitske in Luhansk Oblast. The enemy forces were blitzing the Ukrainian lines with 120-millimeter mortar shells.
“One of the shells targeted a dugout in which two soldiers were taking cover,” the 24th Brigade said of the incident.
“The dugout went on fire and collapsed partly. Taras was the first to rush to the comrade’s rescue. He pulled his fighters out of the trench and put them to a safe place. Meanwhile, one more shell targeted the strongpoint and inflicted a fatal injury to Taras.”
Matviyiv died in a medevac vehicle on its way to a hospital. He was only 31.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously awarded Matviyiv the Hero of Ukraine title three days on.
On July 14, the heroic officer was paid the last respects with military honors during a public morning ceremony in the Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square in the very heart of Kyiv. The golden military star of the Hero of Ukraine was handed to Matviyiv’s father by Ukraine’s Defense Minister Andriy Taran.
“It is thanks to people like Matviyiv that Ukraine will prevail and withstand the war,” the presidential administration said on July 13.
“He is the illustration of values of the young generation of Ukrainians that are creating our nation. Lest we forget the hero.”
Matviyiv is expected to find his final resting place in his hometown of Zhidachiv on July 15.
