Oleh M. Pakhomov (Yakut)

Grenade launcher operator Oleg Pakhomov (call sign Yakut) was killed in action on March 10, 2022, near the village of Stepne, under the city of Volnovakha. He received a fatal injury during intense fire. In the summer, the defender would have turned 50 years old. Oleg was born in the urban-type settlement of Deputatsky (Russia). Later, he moved to Ukraine, to Cherkasy region, and lived in Kaniv. He graduated as a motorist from a vocational-technical school and worked in his specialty until 2016 as a private entrepreneur. He enjoyed doing household chores. From 2016 to 2018, he participated in the ATO/OOS in Donbas. He had the status of a combatant. During the full-scale war, Oleg, from March 5, 2022, defended Ukraine as part of the 46th Separate Assault Battalion "Donbas" of the 54th Mechanized Brigade. Yakut's body could not be evacuated from the battlefield and remained on temporarily occupied territory. To honor the memory of the defender, a memorial plaque was installed in Kaniv on the alley near the memorial sign "Defenders of Ukraine." Posthumously, Oleg Pakhomov was awarded the honorary badge of the Kaniv City Mayor "For Merits to the City of Kaniv." "I would like to say a lot... we lived together for 25 years, there is a lot to remember and tell... but my heart is broken, we miss him as a husband and as a father... However, given these circumstances, understanding that this is war, I realize that I am the wife of a Hero, he is my Hero, and for the children, he is a Hero of Ukraine. Despite the fact that Oleg was born in Russia, he lived, worked, and raised children in Ukraine, he defended Ukraine and gave his life for Ukraine. That's why, because family was the most precious thing to him, in 2016, Oleg, without hesitation, went to the ATO to protect us all, to protect the country where his family lives," says his wife, Svetlana. "From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, my father changed a lot; he understood very well what was happening, he was worried about all of us...," recalls his daughter, Aniuta. Oleg left behind his wife, daughter, and son.