Igor Debrin, 25, wanted to return to the car-building factory where he used to work with his father once he finished his stint with the National Guard, but his plans were cut short on Aug. 31 by a piece of shrapnel to the heart.
Oleksandr Kostyna, 20, wanted to get involved in the theater, and maybe later work in the circus, but instead he died from shrapnel wounds to the head.
Dmytro Slastnikov, 20, hadn’t even had time to figure out what he wanted to do in life before a grenade blast ripped through him, and he died a day later in hospital.
All three National Guardsmen had only recently joined the service when they were posted in front of the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv, where a violent protest over legislation to give the Russian-occupied territories special status on Aug. 31 saw a live grenade thrown at the police cordon.
All three posthumously received the prestigious “For Courage” medal of honor from President Petro Poroshenko.
While the three victims had taken oaths to serve their country as members of the National Guard, which is part of the Interior Ministry, they had not seen combat in the east, where nearly 7,000 people have died in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The war came to them anyway.
Oleksandr Gorin, the head of the local council in Kozachi Lageri, the village where Kostyna was raised, let out a deep sigh when commenting on the tragedy.
“When they take these kids into the army, they always say they won’t send them anywhere dangerous right away. But then there’s this … How can we let our kids join the army?” he said.
Igor Debrin
Debrin spent his childhood in the village of Zmiyivka in Kherson Oblast. After graduating from Kherson National Technical University, he worked at the Berislav car-building factory together with his father.
The National Guard’s website cited Major Volodymyr Bogachuk, the commander of the battalion in which Debrin served, as saying he had been a very responsible soldier.
Oleksandr Nikolaev, one of Debrin’s fellow soldiers, called him “an educated and clever person” who was “always able to make us laugh.”
Dmytro Slastnikov
Slastnikov came from Zhovti Vody, a small town in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. After graduating from the local industrial college, he tended bar at a local club. His cousin, Mykhaylo Yakubsky, who serves as an officer in the Melitopol Aviation Brigade, told the Kyiv Post that Slastnikov didn’t want to join the National Guard at first.
“But when I called him shortly after the (troop) mobilization to ask how he was doing, he told me he liked it,” Yakubsky said.
Slastnikov loved sports, and he even played volleyball professionally for some time, Yakubsky said.
He was described as easy-going and sociable.
“He never argued with anyone. Well, maybe only with his mother, but very rarely,” Yakubsky said. “To describe him in one word, I would say he was pure-hearted.”
Karyna Chernyadyeva, Slastnikov’s friend, used the same word for him – pure-hearted.
“He was very friendly, unassuming, there are very few people like him,” she told the Kyiv Post. “This was a great shock. No one deserves to die like this, especially Dima.”
Oleksandr Kostyna
Olga Bilokon, a secretary at the Kozachi Lageri town council in Kherson Oblast, Kostyna’s native village, said Kostyna had finished nine grades in the local school before enrolling in a college and graduating with a specialty in car mechanics.
When Kostyna received his draft notice, he was working in a local shop.
“He didn’t have any doubts about whether or not to go, he wasn’t looking for any excuses – he just went,” Bilokon told the Kyiv Post.
She said Kostyna loved sports, and often worked out in a schoolyard after work.
“(He was) very nice, responsible, honest, efficient. The whole village is grieving over him,” she sighed. “A wonderful kid.”
Oleksandr Gorin, the head of the local council, said: “You know, they say you should never speak ill of the dead. But there was nothing negative to say about him anyway.”
Kyiv Post staff writers Alyona Zhuk and Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected]
