It has been another deadly month for the Ukrainian army, which is fighting Russia-backed forces in the east of the country.
At least 28 soldiers have been killed and 166 wounded, according to a Kyiv Post count based on information from the military, volunteers, and local media reports.
The government-controlled city of Avdiyivka, as well as Donetsk’s Oblast Pisky, Horlivka, Verkhniotoretske and Luhansk Oblast’s Popasna remained hot spots. Civilians casualties also saw an increase: Since March to mid-May, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs verified at least 178 civilian casualties – 35 deaths and 143 injuries.
Overall, since the Russian military intervention started in Ukraine, more than 2,700 Ukrainian soldiers and representatives of other law enforcement and security bodies have been killed, and up to 9,800 wounded.
The following is the list of those known to have been killed in the period from April 12-May 19:
April 12
Oleh Sanyk, 36, a soldier of the 72nd brigade from Chernihiv Oblast. Sanyk was mobilized to the army in 2015. In early 2017, he returned to the frontlines. He was killed when Russian-backed forces launched an attack on Ukrainian army positions near Butivka mine close to the city of Donetsk, a Kremlin-backed separatist stronghold. “He never discussed with us anything that worried him,” Sanyk’s sister, Larysa, was quoted as saying by a local newspaper. “I talked to him on the phone just hours before his death. I hope he’s (up) in heaven. He deserved it.” Sanyk leaves a wife and a son.
April 13
Yuriy Derkach, 19, a soldier of the 36th Marine Brigade from Sumy Oblast. He was killed near Donetsk’s Oblast Vodyane. Derkach leaves his family in Sumy Oblast.
April 20
Oleksandr Kyriyenko, 20, a soldier of the 72nd brigade from Chernihiv Oblast. He signed a contract with the army in May 2016, and was later deployed to the war zone. Volunteers who help Ukrainian soldiers recall that he was a kind and helpful young man. Kyriyenko was killed during a shelling attack on Avdiyivka. He leaves his family in his native village of Karpylivka in Chernihiv Oblast.
Vasyl Nizhensky 29, a soldier of the 72nd brigade from Cherkasy Oblast. He’d been serving on the frontlines since the beginning of 2017. Nizhensky was killed during a shelling attack on Avdiyivka. He leaves a wife and a 6-year-old son.
Eduard Hryza, 21, a soldier from Mykolaiv Oblast. He was mobilized to the army in 2014. Hryza was reportedly killed near Avdiyivka.
April 22
Pavlo Smyrnov 27, a soldier of the 72nd brigade from Chernihiv Oblast. He worked as a school librarian before the war. Smyrnov’s teachers recalled that the children loved to
go to the library and talk to him. Smyrnov signed a contract with the army in 2015. His 25-year-old brother Oleksiy served with him in the same brigade. Smyrnov was badly wounded near the village of Verkhniotoretske in Donetsk Oblast. His brother rescued Smyrnov and he was later transported to the hospital, where he died. Smyrnov leaves his parents and his brother, who decided to complete his service after his brother’s death.
April 23
Ruslan Amirov, 25, a soldier of the 72nd brigade from Chernihiv Oblast. He signed a contract with the army in 2015. He was killed during clashes near the city of Avdiyivka. Amirov leaves his mother.
April 25
Ivan Melnyk, 22, a soldier of the 95th brigade from Khmelnytsky. He volunteered for the army in 2016. For 120 days, Melnyk and his unit had been fighting on the frontline. Melnyk was fond of canoeing – he wanted to be a coach. A volunteer who’s helping Ukrainian soldiers recalled that Melnyk always brought plastic bottle caps for the prosthetic limbs campaign when he had gone home on leave. He was killed by a sniper near the village of Novhorodske in Donetsk Oblast. Melnyk leaves his parents, a sister and a fiancée.
Vasyl Shevchenko, 29, a soldier of the 80th brigade from Cherkasy Oblast. He was killed near the village of Pisky in Donetsk Oblast. Shevhchenko leaves a 3-year-old daughter.
Serhiy Kobchenko, 44, a senior sergeant of the 72nd brigade from Cherkasy Oblast. He was mobilized in February 2016. His friends recall that football was his big passion: he always tried to play football after work. In summer 2016, Kobchenko took a vacation and went to a class reunion right from the war front. Fellow soldiers said that he was “inspired” by the meeting, which was a last one for him. He was fatally wounded by shrapnel during a shelling attack on the Donetsk Oblast city of Avdiyivka. Kobchenko leaves a daughter.
April 26
Oleksandr Shteiko, 46, a soldier of the 72nd brigade from Vinnytsia Obalst. Shteiko volunteered for the army in 2014. He was wounded twice during his first year of service and was demobilized in 2015. After a year, he signed a contract with the army and started serving again. Shteiko was killed when Russia-backed forces opened fire on Ukrainian army positions near the village of Verkhniotoretske in Donetsk Oblast. He leaves two sons from his first marriage and a common-law wife.
April 28
Ihor Shaposhnyk, 18, a soldier of the 92nd brigade from Kharkiv. When the Russian-instigated war started in 2014, Shaposhnyk had been about to graduate from school. He signed a contract with the army in December, and volunteered to go to the war front. Shaposhnyk was killed when Russian-backed forces attacked Ukrainian army positions near the town of Krasnohorivka in Donetsk Oblast.
Shaposhnyk was an orhpan. Lyudmyla Popova, Shaposhnykov’s teacher in the orhanage, wrote about him: “Our orphanage was closed half a year ago, but we’ll always remain a big family. (Ihor’s death is) heartbreaking, but he’s a hero who died defending our land.”
Oleksandr Berdnyk, 21, a soldier of the 137th Naval Infantry Battalion from Cherkasy Oblast. He was mobilized to the army in 2015. In 2016, Berdnyk signed a three-year-contract with the army. “Responsibility was his middle name,” one of Berdnyk’s fellow soldier recalled. “He was sincere and open-minded. I smile every time I think about him – he always joked.” Berdnyk’s military vehicle – which was given to the soldiers by a charitable fund Come Back Alive – hit a landmine near the village of Pavlopil in Donetsk Oblast. Berdnyk planned to marry after the war. He leaves his father and a fiancée.
April 29
Mykola Kucherkov, 27, a soldier of the 56th brigade from Zaporizhzhya Oblast. He volunteered for the army in 2014. Kucherkov’s parents were against his decision. In an interview Kucherkov gave the local newspaper in Melitopol, he recalled that “he never had military experience, but wanted to help to stop this war.” “My parents couldn’t believe that I left for war,” Kucherkov was quoted as saying. Over three years of war, Kucherkov took part in the battles for Avdiyivka, Pervomaisk, Shyrokyne and Sartana. Kucherkov made it back to the frontlines in 2016. He wanted the war “to be over soon.” Kucherkov leaves his parents.
Mykhailo Lysak, 29, a soldier of the 137th center of logistics of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Lysak signed a contract with the army in 2014. His friends recalled that he was hardworking young man who always tried to “keep moving forward.” He was killed near Popasna in Luhansk Oblast. According to other media reports, he was killed in Lysychansk. Lysak leaves his parents in Vinnytsia Oblast.
April 30
Viktor Afanasiev, 24, a soldier of the 25th airborne brigade from Khmelnytsky. He signed an enlistment contract with the army in 2014. He was killed during clashes in Zaitseve, Donetsk Oblast.
Afanasiev was an orphan. He leaves a sister.
Denys Maiboroda, 37, a soldier of the 131st battalion from Kryvy Rih. Maiboroda volunteered for the army in 2014. He was killed near the village of Katerynivka in Luhansk Oblast. Maiboroda leaves an 11-year-old son.
May 1
Three Ukrainian soldiers – Anatoliy Bizhko, Yury Malkov and Serhiy Smyrnov – were killed during the shelling of the village of Luhanske in Donetsk Oblast on May 1. Bizhko and Smyrnov had been trying to rescue the wounded Malkov. Russia-backed separatists didn’t return the bodies of slain soldiers to Ukrainian officials for five days. On May 6, Ukraine’s military retrieved the bodies of the soldiers near the city of Shchastya under observation by Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors.
Anatoliy Bizhko, 22, a sniper of the 53rd brigade from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. He had been serving in the army since 2013. Bizhko was one of the defenders of Donetsk airport. Bizhko leaves his father, sister and two brothers.
Yury Malkov, 30, a soldier of the 53rd brigade from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. He volunteered for the army in 2014 even though he had no military experience at that time. Malkov was demobilized in 2015, but reenlisted in the army in February. He leaves a wife, a two-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son.
Serhiy Smyrnov, 36, a soldier of the 53rd brigade from Kherson Oblast. Smyrnov was mobilized to the army in 2014. He took part in battles for Popasna, Zolote, Zaitseve, Avdiyivka. He leaves a wife, a son and a 19-year-old son from his first marriage. “He was respected by his friends and dreaded by his enemies,” Smyrnov’s fellow soldier Viktor Zalevsky wrote.
May 2
Serhiy Bohdanov, 60, a soldier of the 23rd Khortytsia Battalion from Melitopol. He signed a contract with the army in 2015. He was killed on his birthday during a mortar attack on Avdiyivka. “Once, we helped Serhiy to buy a car battery for their military vehicle, today he’s dead,” a volunteer who helps Ukrainian soldiers, Halyna Mykytanets wrote. Bohdanov leaves two sons.
May 8
Rostyslav Chypenko, 38, a soldier of the 81st airborne brigade from Poltava. He signed a contract with the army in October. Chypenko went to the war zone in March. He stepped on a landmine near Maryinka and died later in the hospital. He leaves a wife and three children.
May 9
Pavlo Savluk, 26, a soldier of the 36th Marine Brigade from Kirovohrad Oblast. He dreamed about a career in the military. Savluk sustained a severe head wound near the village of Vodyane in Donetsk Oblast. He never regained consciousness and died in Dnipro City Hospital on May 9. He leaves his mother and a brother.
Denys Kochubei, 19, a soldier of the 53rd mechanized brigade from Kahrkiv Oblast. He enlisted in the army in September and volunteered to go to the front in April. He was killed by a sniper near the village of Luhanske in Donetsk Oblast. Kochubei’s fellow soldier, Oleksandr Kukalov, first met him in Desna, a military training facility north of Kyiv. “He (Denys) was a kind man. It’s painful that the best of us leave so early,” Kukalov wrote. Kochubei leaves his parents and a sister.
May 11
Oleksiy Pudov, 32, a soldier of the 92nd brigade from Kharkiv Oblast. Pudov was badly wounded on April 28 near the town of Krasnohorivka in Donetsk Oblast. He was transported to Dnipro City Hospital where he died later. He leaves a wife and a daughter.
Oleksandr Liptuha, 30, a soldier of the 53rd brigade from Mykolaiv Oblast. He was killed by a landmine near the village of Luhanske in Donetsk Oblast.
David Sikharulidze, 44, a soldier from the Aidar Battalion from the village of Supsa, Georgia. He moved to Ukraine in 2014 to train Ukrainian soldiers and joined the Aidar Battalion after a year. His family supported his decision. “Once Ukraine helped Georgia, now it’s our turn,” Sikharulidze explained in one of his interviews with Ukrainian media, referring to the 1992 war in Abkhazia and 2008 Russia-Georgia war.
In Georgia, Sikharulidze was a lieutenant colonel. Mykola Nahorny, Sikharulidze’s fellow soldier, recalled that he was the most calm man in their unit. He was always ready to help military novices.
Sikharulidze was killed during a mortar attack on the village of Novoluhanske in Donetsk Oblast. He leaves a wife, a son and a daughter in Georgia. At least five Georgians have been killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the Memorybook database of Ukraine’s Military History Museum.
May 19
Oleksandr Tynyanov, 26, a soldier of the 55th brigade from Zaporizhzhya Oblast. He was badly wounded by a sniper near the city of Avdiyivka, Donetsk Oblast. He died later in Dnipro City Hospital. “You were a great spotter, a good man and a friend,” Tynyanov’s friend, Serhiy Vladimirovich, wrote on Facebook.
