Bohdan S. Kriazh (Kavun)

Soldier Bohdan Kriazhh (call sign Kavun) was killed on July 4, 2023, during the evacuation of the wounded in the village of Zherebianky, Zaporizhzhia region. The following month, the warrior would have turned 20 years old. Bohdan was from the village of Yemilchyne, Zhytomyr region. He lived in Kharkiv. There he graduated from Lyceum No. 128 with a gold medal. Then he studied at the Faculty of Law at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. He was a third-year student. He loved to read books, collected his own library and dreamed of becoming a writer. He adored animals, volunteered, and fed stray cats and dogs since his early school days. During the full-scale invasion, he joined the volunteer battalion "Brotherhood" of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. He held the position of combat medic. He was awarded the medal "Ukraine above all!" for an operation near Bakhmut, where he was wounded. "Bohdan lived with the dream of a free and independent Ukraine and was ready to give his life for this. He told me that he would fight to the last breath so that our nation would continue to exist. Despite his young age, he was brave, fearless, very intelligent, and determined. For me, he was not just a son, but a friend who supported me, lifted my spirits, and without him it is very sad and painful," wrote his mother Oksana Kriazhh. The warrior was buried on the Alley of Glory in Kharkiv. He is survived by his parents. After Bohdan's death, his comrades-in-arms published a collection of his short stories called "Phantoms".