Maksym A. Falin

Sergeant Maksym Falin was killed on April 9, 2023, in a battle with Russian invaders near the village of Novobakhmutivka in the Donetsk region. A month earlier, on March 5, the soldier turned 43 years old. Maksym was born in the city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, in a military family. He grew up disciplined and hardworking, distinguished by a strong sense of responsibility for his younger brother. Even then, while caring for him, he began to dream of having a daughter. He always had many friends, was very sociable and a capable student. In 1995, he graduated from secondary school No. 15. Later, he entered the Melitopol Higher Vocational School, where he obtained the profession of a welder. In 1998, he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After acquiring the military specialty of a cryptographer-coder at the training center in Pavlohrad, he continued his service in military unit A1126 in Vinnytsia. He was discharged in 2000. In 2013, he met his future wife Nadiia, and a few years later the couple got married and moved to the Khmilnytskyi region, then to Vinnytsia. The man worked as a welder. "Maksym was always an optimist and said he would be a father of many children. My husband and I planned to build a private house for our future large family and start a family pizzeria. He worked very hard for this, constantly earning money: in Poland, then in the Czech Republic. He was always fair. He loved large groups of friends, adored fishing, weapons, nature, and active recreation. He loved to travel together. We went to the sea every year, and he devoted a lot of time to the children. He constantly taught his son, taught him to swim in the pool from the age of 4 months," says the widow of the fallen. On the morning of February 24, 2022, Maksym hurried home from work to evacuate his family to a safe place. Three days later, he arrived for further military service at one of the air force brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was appointed as a machine gunner in one of the guard platoons of the military unit. During his service, he was distinguished by a good character and simplicity of decisions. His comrades-in-arms describe him as a sociable, fair, and very generous person. He was always smiling, an example of simplicity in life and a model of discipline in military service. Together with his comrades-in-arms, the man constantly trained, practiced, and improved his shooting skills, learned tactical medicine, and underwent a full course of combat training in the current realities of the war. Later, Maksym's unit reinforced the ranks of the consolidated rifle brigade of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Soon, the defenders set off to defend the eastern direction of the front. On April 6, 2023, the fighter last called his relatives and warned that he would be out of touch for about two days. Three days later, he was killed. The military was buried in the village of Pravdivka in the Khmilnytskyi region. The hero left behind a wife, son, daughter, brother, aunt, close ones, friends, and comrades-in-arms. On May 25, 2023, Sergeant Maksym Falin was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage of the III degree. On August 29, 2023, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the facade of the village council building in Pravdivka in honor of the defender.