Maksym O. Yarovets (Skif)

Maxim Yarovets was born on January 13, 1995, in the city of Khmelnytskyi. In 2012, he graduated from secondary school No. 18 of the I–III degrees named after Vyacheslav Chornovil. He loved history above all. As he grew older, he became interested in special forces. He bought books and watched movies about special forces, and began to seriously engage in sports. In his final year, Maxim told his parents that he would only enroll in a military university that trains intelligence officers and special forces, and on February 28, 2016, he graduated from the faculty of training specialists in military intelligence and special operations of the Odessa Military Academy. A month before graduation, the entire platoon in which Maxim studied wrote reports requesting to be sent to the ATO zone. Since March 14, 2016, he participated in the anti-terrorist operation in Eastern Ukraine, holding the position of platoon commander of the 2nd reconnaissance company, and from July, the position of commander of the deep reconnaissance company of the 130th separate reconnaissance battalion of the operational command "West" of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (military unit V0798, city of Rivne). Despite his young age, Maxim had a strong character. Subordinates, even those much older, aged 40–45, called him Sanych and listened to him unconditionally, respected and supported him. The young officer never showed superiority and treated his comrades as equals. He went on combat missions with them. Lieutenant Yarovets was killed on October 5, 2016, at 10:50 near the city of Marinka in the Donetsk region, while returning from a combat mission. His group of 5 fighters did not reach our positions by about 600 meters; on their way, there was a ditch with water that concealed a tripwire of an anti-personnel mine MON-50. The fighter who was first jumped over it, but Skif got caught… The first soldier sustained serious injuries, but immediately rushed to help Maxim, but the heart of the young commander stopped…