Ivan V. Matviichuk (Mongol)

Lieutenant Ivan Matviichuk (call sign Mongol) was killed on January 23, 2023 near the village of Chervonopopivka in the Luhansk region. During the performance of a combat mission, he received fatal injuries as a result of enemy artillery shelling. The officer was 37 years old. Ivan was born in the village of Bystryk, Zhytomyr region. He graduated from the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. He also studied at the police academy. He worked as a district police officer. In recent years, he lived in Poland, where he was a laborer. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, on March 6, 2022, the man was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade. He held the position of tank platoon commander. "His crew was one of the first to break through the defense on the Kharkiv direction near Izyum. According to his comrades-in-arms, he saved many, pulling them out of the battlefield. Everyone who knew Ivan will remember him kindly for his fairness, courage, kindness and positivity," said Olena Matviichuk, the wife of the deceased's brother. Ivan was buried in his native village. The defender left behind parents, a brother, a wife, a son whom he saw only once when he took him from the maternity hospital, as well as a loving family, friends and comrades-in-arms. The officer was posthumously awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 3rd degree.