Ihor V. Neshko (Siedoi)

Ihor Volodymyrovych Neshko was born on January 12, 1978, in Chernihiv. In his father's family, there was an officer dynasty (his grandfather Andrii Myronovych was a legendary commander of World War II, a holder of the Orders of Alexander Nevsky and two Orders of the Red Banner), and his mother was a music teacher. In 1993, Ihor graduated from the 8th grade of Chernihiv Secondary School No. 12 and Chernihiv Music School No. 1 in the saxophone class, and that same year he entered the Chernihiv Music College named after Levko Revutskyi (wind instruments department). However, the military genes showed, and after graduating from the music college in 1997, Ihor entered the military institute at the National University "Lviv Polytechnic," where in 2001 he obtained a basic higher education in the specialty "Military Conductor." In 2004, he enrolled in the correspondence form of study in the fifth year at the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, obtaining higher musical education in the specialty "Musical Art" and receiving the qualification "Teacher, orchestra artist, conductor of a wind orchestra." From 2002 to 2010, Ihor served under contract as a performing musician, a first-category artist in the orchestra of the 8th Training Chernihiv Center of Railway Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (from November 1, 2004, the State Special Transport Service of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Ukraine (military unit T-0500)). In 2005, he married Vira Ocheret, and three years later, the couple had a son, Vladyslav. This marriage turned out to be short-lived — the couple divorced, although they maintained a good relationship; Ihor Volodymyrovych communicated with his son and was involved in his upbringing (in 2014, Vladyslav moved to Canada with his mother for permanent residence). In 2010, having experience in a military orchestra, Ihor Volodymyrovych transferred to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and held the position of border service inspector in the "Dobryanka" border service department of the Chernihiv border detachment for 5 years. In 2012, Ihor married for the second time — to Yulina Zhuravel, who studied with him at the military institute at the National University "Lviv Polytechnic" and at that time served as an officer in the Berdiansk border detachment; later, she transferred to the Chernihiv border detachment, where her husband served. Only during 2014-2015, Ihor Neshko discovered and prevented 5 attempts by illegal migrants to cross the state border, 8 violations of the rules of stay in Ukraine by foreigners and stateless persons, 2 attempts to export vehicles abroad with forged documents, and detained a citizen wanted by law enforcement agencies. After the start of hostilities in Donbas during the formation of the operational-combat border command "Chernihiv," senior sergeant Ihor Neshko was one of the first in the unit to express a desire to join its ranks and go to the area of the anti-terrorist operation. From June 2015, he was on the front line, holding the position of senior scout in the reconnaissance platoon of the operational-combat border command "Kurakhivka" of the Kramatorsk border detachment. In October 2015, on the eve of Defender of Ukraine Day, Ihor Volodymyrovych was awarded one of the highest honors of the State Border Guard Service — the badge "For Courage in Protecting the State Border." He died on November 8, 2015, when the armored vehicle "Kuguar," in which the border patrol was heading to the checkpoint "Heorhiivka" for service, was involved in a traffic accident in the area of the town of Kurakhivka in the Selydiv district of Donetsk region. He was buried on November 11, 2015, at the Chernihiv cemetery "Yatsevo." After his wife Yulina tragically died in a traffic accident in Kyiv on July 18, 2018, and was buried in her hometown of Berdiansk, a symbolic cenotaph was added to Ihor's gravestone, part of which is a marble urn with soil from Yulina's grave.