Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine in the east of the country has taken the lives of 286 Ukrainian servicemen since the beginning of the year, with a further 350 being wounded.
In May alone, at
least 37 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in sporadic outbreaks of shelling and
shooting all along the front line. It was the deadliest month for Ukraine’s
troops since August 2014.
Over the course
of the two-year war, some 2,878 Ukrainian soldiers and 6,500 civilians have
been killed, according to the United Nations. More than half of the civilians
were killed by landmines.
Waging a hybrid
war against Ukraine, both the Kremlin and the armed groups in the Donbas it
supports are believed to have been hiding the true extent of their casualties.
However, in February 2015 the Russian business website Delovaya Zhizn reported
that around 2,000 Russian families had received compensation for the deaths of
family members killed while fighting in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin quickly
censored the report under a new law that makes Russian army deaths in peacetime
an official secret.
The armed groups
that have seized control in parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts
reported 2,171 killed from April 6, 2014 to April 12, 2016. However, as a large
percentage of these groups’ fighters are believed to be Russian volunteers,
mercenaries, and regular troops, it is not clear how many Ukrainians fighting
with the armed groups have been killed.
Since the
beginning of the year, about 6,380 shelling attacks by Kremlin-backed forces in
the Donbas area have been recorded, according to Ukrainian National Security
and Defense Council Deputy Secretary Mykhailo Koval.
Koval said that
lately the number of Russian troops deployed near Ukraine’s border has been
increasing.
The casualty
figures don’t include servicemen who died in May from non-combat related
causes.
Casualties in Russia’s war against Ukraine
(through May 31)
Civilians killed
– 6,500
Soldiers killed –
2,877
Soldiers wounded
– About 9,400
Displaced people
from Donertsk, Luhansk Oblasts and Crimea – about 1.8 million
Soldiers joining
the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2016 – 29,500
The following is
a list of those known to be have been killed in May 2016:
May 1
Roman
Svirzhevsky, 22 – Served in the Ukrainian military for three years, from the
age of 19. A native of Rivne Oblast, Svirzhevsky was killed in the Luhansk
Oblast during a combat mission. He leaves parents and a sister.
Sergiy Kovalchuk,
43 – Volunteered to join Ukraine’s army. Killed in a military operation in
Maryinsky district of Donetsk Oblast. His body was seized by Russia-backed
fighters. He leaves a wife and two small children.
Yehor Zameta, 27
– A native of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Zameta worked as a welder before joining
the army. He had been fighting for his life for nine months after being wounded
by a sniper near Horlivka in Donetsk Oblast, and died in a hospital in Berlin.
He participated in 12 combat missions.
May 5
Volodymyr Hordin,
46 – A native of Fastiv in Kyiv Oblast, Hordin was called up in August. He was
killed in Schastya in Luhansk Oblast. He leaves parents and siblings.
May 8
Oleksandr Piven,
29 – Piven was a soldier with the 55th artillery brigade of Zaporizhzhya.
He stepped on a landmine while building a checkpoint.
Petro Zaiats, 44
– Zaiats served in the 54th separate mechanized brigade. He was
called up in August and underwent training in Rivne. He was killed near Bakhmut
(former Artemivsk), Donetsk Oblast. He was divorced and has a 19-year-old
daughter.
May 9
Oleksandr
Polutskyi, 39 – A serviceman of the 79th aeromobile brigade from Mykolaiv, on
May 3 he was shot in the head by a sniper. He remained in critical condition
for a week, and died in hospital in Dnipropetrovsk.
Unknown Soldier –
An unidentified serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was killed after
stepping on an explosive device. Two other soldiers were wounded by the same
device but survived.
May 10
Serhiy Goriachev,
36 – A native of Zhytomyr Oblast and a serviceman of the State Border Service
of Ukraine, Goriachev was called up in June 2015 and sent to serve in
Kramatorsk, where he was killed. He leaves two daughters. The younger one is
five years old.
Oleksiy
Kravchenko, 38 – A native of Sumy Oblast, Kravchenko was in a military truck
that was blown up near Avdiyivka in Donetsk Oblast. He leaves three children.
Eduard Savinov,
46 – A native of Chornomorsk in Odesa Oblast, Savinov was a junior sergeant
with the 36th Marines Brigade. He joined the Ukrainian military as a
volunteer in 2015. He was killed by a landmine, shrapnel from which hit his
carotid artery. He leaves an 11-year-old son and a sister.
May 13
Ihor Kovalchuk,
28 – A native of Odesa Oblast. Kovalchuk was a junior sergeant, and commanded a
unit within the 28th mechanized brigade. He was called up in April
2015 and killed during a reconnaissance mission in Luhansk Oblast. He leaves a
mother, siblings and a 4-year-old son.
Kostiantyn
Hrinchenko, 48 – An army volunteer, he was fatally injured in Donbas. According
to his friends, Kostiantyn had two sons, who rejected him and fought for the
armed groups in the Donbas.
May 15
Dmytro Horbunov,
35 – A native of Odesa Oblast and a gunner’s assistant in a rocket launcher
battery of the 128th brigade, Horbunov was called up in 2015. He was
killed in a mortar attack near Avdiyivka in Donetsk Oblast.
May 18
Radyslav Atishev,
28 – A native of Zhytomyr Oblast, Atishev joined the army in December and had
served in the Donbas since April. He was killed by a sniper near Avdiyivka in
Donetsk Oblast while placing sandbags on Ukrainian forces’ positions. The
bullet hit him in a gap between the plates of his body armor.
Ivan Dus, 32 –
Dus was called up in April 2015. He was wounded by a sniper near the village of
Malynove in Luhansk Oblast and died during surgery. He leaves a mother and an
infant daughter.
May 20
Dmytro Pavlenko,
32 – Pavlenko lived in Bila Tserkva in Kyiv Oblast before being called up in
April 2014. The exact date, place and circumstances of his death are unknown.
He leaves parents, a brother, a wife and a son.
May 21
Oleksandr
Kalashnyk, 29 – He was called up twice: in April 2014 and once again – in
August 2015. He was killed in near the city Shchastia in Luhansk Oblast.
May 22
Vladyslav Haisuk,
21 – He was a native of Kherson Oblast and a serviceman of the 28th
mechanized brigade. He was killed in a shelling attack in Luhansk Oblast.
May 23
Volodymyr
Dzundza, 33 – A native of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Dzundza was a captain of the
58th mechanized brigade. He was called up in August 2015 and killed
in Luhansk Oblast. He leaves parents, a wife, and a 7-year-old son.
Serhiy
Yablunovsky, 37 – A native of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Yablunovsky was a sergeant
in the 92nd mechanized brigade. He died of shrapnel wounds and burns
received in a shelling attack near Shchastya in Luhansk Oblast. He leaves a
14-year-old daughter that he was raising on his own.
Mykola Kuliba, 56
– Kuliba was an active participant of the EuroMaidan Revolution. He went to the
war with the Aidar volunteer battalion. Kuliba was killed after driving over a
landmine. He leaves a mother and a brother.
Oleksandr
Biriukov, 45 – A serviceman of the 90th assault battalion
“Zhytomyr,” which he joined in June 2015 as a volunteer. He was killed in a
mortar attack near Avdiyivka in Donersk Oblast. He leaves a wife and three
children, the youngest of which is 14.
May 27
Andriy Zhuk, 32 –
A native of Khmelnytska Oblast, a commander of the 3rd battalion of
72nd separate mechanized brigade of Bila Tserkva, Zhuk joined the
army as volunteer. Zhuk was mortally wounded in combat near Volnovakha. He
leaves a mother and a sister.
May 28
Maksym Kochura,
37 – Kochura was a native of Poltava Oblast and was called up in May 2015. He
was killed when he drove over a landmine near the village of Novoselivka in
Donetsk Oblast. He leaves children.
Pavlo Brezhun, 27
– A native of Mykolaiv Oblast, Brezhun died in Donetsk Oblast, caught in an
ambush by Russia-backed armed group along with three other soldiers. Brezhun
leaves a wife and an infant son.
Roman Havrylenko,
37 – Havrylenko was a native of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and a soldier-grenadier
of the 13th separate motorized infantry. He was called up in June
2015 and killed in the same ambush as Brezhun.
May 29
Denys Bohdanov –
A native of Zaporizhzhya, Bohdanov was killed in a mortar attack while serving
with the 56th brigade.
Serhiy Khoroshun,
46 – A police officer from Myrne in Zaporizhzhya Oblast, Khoroshun volunteered
to join the army in February 2016. He was killed in a mortar attack near
Pavlopil in Donetsk Oblast.
