As Ukraine claimed saboteurs blew up an ammunition depot storing tank ammunition at a military base located some 250 kilometers from the war front early on March 23, fighting continues in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Some 84 attacks have been reported on Ukrainian army positions by Russian-backed forces within the last 24 hours. Tank fire, artillery, mortars and sniper fire have been directed at Ukrainian troops in the city of Avdiyivka, 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, as well as in the towns of Shyrokyne, Mariyinka and Zaitseve. The town of Stanytsya Luhanska and the village of Krymske in Luhansk Oblast were also hot spots.
Some 21 soldiers have been killed and 135 wounded in March, according to a Kyiv Post count based on the information from the military, volunteers and unofficial sources. Overall, this brings the death toll from Russia’s war on Ukraine to 2,629 Ukrainian soldiers, according to the Ukrainian military.
Since the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the number of casualties has topped more than 10,000 people, with another 23,455 people being wounded. The fighting has displaced at least 1.7 million citizens, according to United Nations estimates.
The following is the list of those known to have been killed in the period from March 1-20.
March 1
Volodymyr Pirus, 41, a soldier of the second unit of the 24th Mechanized Brigade from Lviv Oblast. He joined the army in 2014 and was sent to the front line in January 2015. He took part in battles for the villages of Krymske, Triokhizbenka and Novotoshkivka in Luhansk Oblast. Pirus’s fellow soldiers recalled they always felt safe with him, because he was “the most courageous man” in their unit. He was killed when an anti-tank missile hit his vehicle near the village of Katerynivka, Luhansk Oblast.
Pirus leaves his family, a son and a daughter in his native town of Stryy in Lviv Oblast.
March 2
Oleksandr Vozhyuk, 25, a soldier of the 36th Marine Brigade from Zhytomyr Oblast. Together with his family he lived in the town of Lubny in Poltava Oblast. Voznyuk’s father is a priest in the local Orthodox Church. He was serving in a village of Perevalne in Crimea when Russia annexed the peninsula in March 2014. Shortly after that he was sent to the Donbas. His friends recalled he was a talented young man, who wrote poetry. The Defense Ministry published a poem he had dedicated to his friend, Lieutenant-Colonel Yury Zahrebelny, who was killed near Mariupol in 2014.
On March 2, together with three of his comrades, Voznyuk stepped on a landmine near the village of Sartana close to the coastal town of Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast. He died instantly. He leaves his family, a wife and a daughter.
March 3
Serhiy Klochkov, 29, a soldier of the 79th brigade from Sumy Oblast. He was badly wounded during the fighting for Avdiyivka on March 1. Klochkov died days later in Dnipro (formerly called Dnipropetrovsk) city hospital. He leaves his parents.
March 4
Rostyslav Trukhansky, 20, a soldier of the Aratta Ukrainian Volunteer Battalion from Lviv Oblast. Trukhansky was raised by his grandmother and dreamed of having a military career. In his spare time, he liked to dance and study automobile engineering. Trukhansky signed an enlistment contract with the army in 2016. He was badly wounded in late February in the Donetsk Oblast city of Avdiyivka. Trukhansky had his legs amputated, and shrapnel had shredded his whole body. His fellow residents raised money for his treatment, but he died in Dnipro city hospital. Nataliya Novosadska, deputy head of the school where Trukhansky studied, told the local media that he was a “kind and sincere young man and it was easy for everyone to like him.” Trukhansky leaves his grandmother in a city of Bila Tserkva, some 80 km south of Kyiv.
Roman Kyyanytsya, 24, a soldier of the 72nd Brigade from Kyiv Oblast. He signed an enlistment contract with the army in 2016 and served in the frontline city of Avdiyivka, where he was killed during shelling.
March 6
Oleksandr Veremeyenko, 20, a soldier of the 36th Marine Brigade from Luhansk Oblast. In 2016, he signed an enlistment contract with the army and was sent to the Donbas in October. Veremeyenko continued his studies at a local college and took days off from his service to take exams in winter. He was killed during shelling near the village of Vodyane in Donetsk Oblast. Veremeyenko’s mother died a month before his death. He leaves an aunt.
Oleksiy Rufymsky, 50, a soldier of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, a fighting force affiliated with the ultra-nationalist Right Sector (Pravy Sektor) group. Rufymsky was a native of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and had been serving on the frontlines for about a year. “I will never forget him. During the shelling he’d always took younger soldiers to the shelter while staying on the firing lines himself,” one of Rufymsky’s fellow soldier, known by the nom de guerre Klen (Maple) said. Rufymsky was killed during shelling of Ukrainian army positions in Donetsk Oblast. He leaves his family in the village of Kocherezhky, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Oleksandr Afanasiv, 28, a soldier of the 79th Brigade from Lviv Oblast. He was killed in Donetsk Oblast on March 6. Afanasiv leaves a wife.
March 10
Vitaly Dzyza, 22, a soldier of the 501st Naval Infantry Battalion from Zaporizhzhya Oblast. He used to work in Russia, where he met his fiancee. They planned their wedding in summer. Dzyza returned to Ukraine and signed an enlistment contract with the army in summer. He was killed during shelling near Mariupol. Dzyza leaves a one-year-old daughter.
March 11
Anton Dzeryn, 20, a soldier of the 24th Aidar Battalion of the 53rd Brigade from Poltava Oblast. He volunteered to the army in 2015. He was killed near the village of Berezove in Donetsk Oblast. Dzeryn leaves a mother.
March 13
Volodymyr Knyazev, 18, a soldier of the 24th Mechanized Brigade from Lviv Oblast. He signed an enlistment contract with the army a month after he turned 18. His mother didn’t want him to go to fight, but he had always dreamt of a military career. Knyazev was killed by artillery shellfire in Luhansk Oblast. He leaves his parents, three brothers, and a sister.
March 16
Mykola Yavorsky, 34, a soldier of the 14th Mechanized Brigade from Volyn Oblast. Yavorsky decided to join the army after Russia’s military aggression started in the east. He was killed in a barrage of mortar shelling near the village of Lobacheve in Luhansk Oblast. Yavorsky leaves a wife and two sons.
Mykola Hrabarchuk, 20, a soldier of the 14th Mechanized Brigade from Khmelnytsky Oblast. Hrabarchuk had been serving on the frontlines since December. He was killed during mortar shelling near the village of Lobacheve in Luhansk Oblast. Hrabarchuk leaves his parents.
March 17
Dmytro Kushnir, 46, a soldier of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade from the city of Dnipro. He was mobilized to the army at the beginning of 2015. He took part in battles for the village of Pisky – a few kilometers from the ruins of Donetsk airport – a hotspot in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Kushnir returned to the front line in January. He leaves a wife.
Leonid Halaychuk, 25, a soldier of the 36th Marine Brigade from Odesa Oblast. Halaychuk started serving in the army in 2014, and joined the marines in 2015. He was killed near the village of Vodyane in southern Donetsk Oblast. Halaychuk leaves a wife.
Oleksiy Kondratyuk, 21, a soldier of the 36th Marine Brigade from Rivne Oblast. He had worked as a plumber before he was mobilized to the army in May. He was killed near the village of Vodyane in southern Donetsk Oblast. Kondratyuk leaves a wife and a two-year-old son.
Ihor Ilyushko, 28, a soldier of the 92nd Mechanized Brigade from Zaporizhzhya Oblast. He signed an enlistment contract with the army in 2016. Ilyushko was killed near Maryinka in Donetsk Oblast on March 17. He leaves a wife and two sons.
March 20
Ruslan Bondar, 38, a soldier of the 30th Mechanized Brigade from Vinnytsia Oblast. He was a math teacher in a local school. Bondar had been fighting on the front line since September. He was killed by a sniper in Novotroyitske, Donetsk Oblast. Bondar leaves a mother and a brother in Vinnytsia Oblast.
Vyacheslav Chernetsky, 22, a soldier of the 36th Marine Brigade from Vinnytsia Oblast. He was killed during shelling near the village of Vodyane in southern Donetsk Oblast. “You will always be in our hearts,” Chernetsky’s friend, Denys Shatsylo, wrote on his social media page. “You were an honest and sincere young man. We’ll miss you.” Chernetsky leaves his parents.
Andriy Kostin, 19, a soldier from 54th mechanized brigade from Kostyantynivka, Donetsk Oblast. He signed an enlistment contract with army in March, 2016. Kostin was killed near the village of Vidrodzhennya in Donetsk Oblast. He was the only son in his family.
