Dmytro V. Bondarenko (Smailyk, Ben)

Soldier Dmytro Bondarenko (call sign Ben) was killed on September 12, 2022 in a battle with the occupiers near the village of Verkhnyokamyanske in Donetsk region. The warrior was 23 years old. Dmytro was born and lived in Kharkiv. He studied at secondary school No. 118. Then he graduated from the Kharkiv Vocational Lyceum of Railway Transport. He served in the military. He devoted his free time to friends and sports. He practiced boxing and taekwondo. During the full-scale war, Dmytro became a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was a mechanic-driver in the 54th separate mechanized brigade named after Hetman Ivan Mazepa. He fought in the Donetsk region. "He was a very good person who would never pass by someone else's misfortune. He always smiled. He could never refuse if someone asked him for something. He loved animals very much, and during the war he had a puppy named Baron, but he also tragically was killed. Dmytro always wanted to be a military man and in April he was already in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. His comrades-in-arms said about him: "Smiley, you are forever with us in the ranks," said the deceased's friend Elizaveta. The warrior was buried in the Alley of Glory of cemetery No. 18 in his native Kharkiv. Dmytro is survived by his parents and brother.