Denys R. Rachinskyi (Stalker)

Denis Ruslanovych Rachynskyi was born on August 17, 1998, in Kyiv. From 2004 to 2010, he studied first at specialized school No. 183 in Kyiv, and from 2010 to 2015, he continued his education at the V. O. Sukhomlynskyi Ukrainian College. In 2019, he graduated from the History and Philosophy Faculty of the M. P. Drahomanov National Pedagogical University. During his school years, he achieved significant sports success, practicing karate at the "TENNO DOJO" club. Since 2012, Denis began actively participating in the fan movement of the Kyiv football club "Dynamo." At the same time, he earned prize places for Kyiv in competitions from the capital's Kyokushin karate club "TENNO DOJO." Since the beginning of the Revolution of Dignity, Denis, still a young man, voluntarily went to the barricades to fight for a better future for his country. Since 2015, Denis Rachynskyi was among the few dozen people in Kyiv who created the first large-scale volunteer project "Civil Corps Azov." Later, thanks to his initiative, from 2016 to 2017, an autonomous fight against illegal gambling businesses began on the left bank of Kyiv. He was one of the few in the Dnipro district of Kyiv who started to combat the propaganda of pro-Russian forces, which are now listed in the registry of banned organizations in Ukraine. Denis Rachynskyi also distinguished himself by disrupting several communist gatherings in Kyiv during the post-revolutionary period. In addition, the young man was involved in destroying drug advertisements and organized clean-up days in his home district. Not limiting himself to purely internal problems of his native Kyiv, Denis Rachynskyi spent his free time studying the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. While completing his bachelor's degree at the History Faculty, he defended his thesis on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant titled "Systemic Crisis in the Nuclear Energy Sector of the USSR." Understanding all aspects of Chernobyl perfectly, Denis voluntarily appeared in a full-length feature on one of the TV channels, where he raised issues of poaching and mass deforestation in the Chernobyl zone with all the facts. He also assisted other media projects in creating articles about corruption in the Exclusion Zone. While studying at the capital university, Denis simultaneously delved deeply into the history of Ukraine and participated in excavations of the Trypillian culture era. He meticulously studied his hometown and documented architectural structures, underground passages, abandoned Soviet-era factories, and buildings on film. This inspired those around him towards urbanism and love for Kyiv. On February 24, when Russian occupiers began their assault on Kyiv, Denis Rachynskyi went to the Dnipro military enlistment office, took up arms, and decided to defend his native city, his country. From the first days of hostilities in the Kyiv region, Denis, as part of the territorial defense of the Pechersk district of Kyiv, and later in the ranks of the "Mriya" Territorial Defense Battalion of Kyiv, began executing combat orders alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Denis Rachynskyi met his death while defending Kyiv. The young man was killed on March 20, 2022, while carrying out a combat mission as a result of a missile strike on the "Retroville" shopping mall. Denis Rachynskyi is buried in the Alley of Heroes at the Lisove Cemetery in Kyiv.