Borys B. Kyforenko

Boris Kyforenko was born in Vinnytsia on April 11, 1974. He grew up and studied in the very beautiful and picturesque village of Demivka, Chechelnyk Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast. This is an ancient village that has experienced many things throughout its history of over half a millennium — the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the Haidamak uprising, and many wars. Boris's mother, Iryna Vasylivna, worked as a deputy principal at the school, so the boy was well acquainted with the glorious history of his native land. Demivka is located between the villages of Berizky-Chechelnytsky and Olhopil, near a pine forest and a mountain. The area is a unique beauty! And in the forest, just 4 km from the village, was a missile unit. Perhaps, under the impression of the sight of courageous defenders, the boy decided to choose a military fate — after graduating from high school in 1991, he entered the Kyiv Higher Military Engineering College of Communications. In 1996, young Lieutenant Boris Kyforenko arrived in Odessa and served there for 18 years, until the very beginning of the undeclared war… Boris Borysovych always enjoyed his service, he knew it and therefore quickly moved up the career ladder. Judge for yourselves: in June 1996, the newly-minted officer was appointed to the position of assistant to the chief of the technical department for communications equipment of the communications regiment of the air defense corps, and just 11 months later he was entrusted to command a telegraph-telephone battalion unit. Subsequently, he was in charge of the supply company of the communications regiment, and after 2.5 years, he was already in the position of chief of staff — first deputy commander of the communications battalion of the mobile command post of the communications regiment. In 2004, Major Boris Kyforenko graduated from the Faculty of Training Specialists of the Operational-Tactical Level of the National Academy of Defense of Ukraine and returned to Odessa, which had already become his home for the officer. In 10 years of service here after the academy, Boris Borysovych grew from chief of staff — first deputy commander of the telegraph-telephone battalion of the communications regiment to chief of the information and telecommunications node of the separate communications regiment of the Air Command "South" of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In April 2014, he was appointed to the position of commander of the separate communications brigade of the Operational Command "South", which was stationed in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. 2014 began badly for Boris Kyforenko — first his father, 70-year-old Boris Mykolayovych, fell ill, then he himself fell ill. He had already been appointed to the position of brigade commander, and the newly appointed brigade commander was in the hospital, where he underwent surgery… As soon as doctors allowed him to return to his duties, the officer flew to the brigade like a bullet. Within a few days, he took over the affairs and the position and went to Donbas, to the zone of the anti-terrorist operation… "We only had to serve together for 2.5 months, but in this short time I was convinced: I had never met such purposeful, competent and fair commanders before," said his "commissar" — deputy for work with personnel, Lieutenant Colonel Pavlo Khmarsky, about the brigade commander. "As an officer-educator, I was simply delighted with the new commander! After all, between us, Boris Borysovych took on a significant part of my work — they even joked in the brigade that there were now two deputy political officers in the unit. A cheerful, promising officer, a wonderful person — everyone saw him as a general in the near future, and he himself, perhaps, was sure that he would become a general!" Everything was cut short by a Russian grenade on August 29 at 7:30 near Ilovaisk… A large column of equipment and personnel from several military units and volunteer battalions left Ilovaisk at 6:00 a.m. and went to break through the encirclement. And after 1.5 hours, the Ukrainian soldiers were ambushed. The carnage was terrible, dozens — hundreds of people were killed and wounded. For 35 minutes, the column was bombarded with 2A42 cannons — the armament of BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms, including heavy machine guns. A grenade launcher hit the UAZ in which brigade commander Kyforenko was riding. Major Andriy Gladkov and Major Oleksandr Svitlychny, who were sitting in the back seats, were killed instantly, and the commander and the driver, Senior Soldier Pavlo Shaposhnikov, were thrown from the car by the blast wave. The driver received a concussion and numerous shrapnel wounds to his limbs, and the commander had both arms and legs broken. The injuries were very serious, although, perhaps, if Colonel Kyforenko had received timely medical attention, he would have survived… But there was no hope for help from the Russians, because it was they, and not the local separatists, who were shelling the column… The wounded driver crawled to his commander and they talked for about 15 minutes until a Russian BMP-2 drove up to the mangled UAZ. Everything as it should be, paratroopers with Russian chevrons on their sleeves, they didn't even try to hide their origin! They tied the hands of both wounded men with tape and left them to their fate, driving on. Pavlo, fortunately, had minor injuries, but Boris Borysovych was bleeding for another 4 hours… Then the Russians took the "lightly" wounded with them, and left the "seriously" wounded to die under the scorching August sun. This is in the best case scenario, in the worst case… When the enemy was loading into the cars those of the wounded who could move themselves, our guys heard shots and could not explain the nature and reason for these single shots and short, economical bursts other than the execution of the wounded. Moreover, these shots were heard by Shaposhnikov and people even from other units who were lucky enough to survive in the shattered column… "Boris was buried in the village of Avangard, on the outskirts of Odessa," said a friend of the deceased, who served with him in Odessa for a long time, Lieutenant Colonel Valentyn Shevchuk. "There were simply crowds of people at the funeral! At least 500 people… They said goodbye to Boris at the Garrison House of Officers, and the police had to block the road — there were so many people that day near the GBO…"