Artem M. Rudyka

19-year-old soldier Artem Rudik was killed on May 20, 2022, while performing a combat mission in the area of the village of Katerynivka, Luhansk region. The defender received fatal injuries during a tank and air strike. Artem was born in the village of Velykyi Mydsk, Rivne region. After finishing school, he received secondary technical education in the specialty "Repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles". Later, he decided to link his life with military service and signed a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During the full-scale Russian invasion, Artem held the position of a driver of a flamethrower platoon of a radiation, chemical and biological protection company of one of the combat units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "Heroes are our contemporaries, peers. With their heroism, they have already turned the usual worldview upside down and proved to the whole world that any events can be influenced radically, that there are no situations that cannot be changed for the better. Everything depends solely on a person, the strength of their spirit, the convictions they defend. All stand shoulder to shoulder to defend Ukraine, even Protestant believers who, guided by their faith, could not take up arms in peacetime. Our HERO was like that. We bow to his self-sacrifice," the Kostopil City Council website wrote. The serviceman was buried in his native village. Artem is survived by his parents, brothers, and sisters.