Roman O. Sokurenko (Sokil)

Roman Sokurenko was born on January 18, 1983, in the city of Novoukrainka, Kirovohrad region. When Roman was 2 years old, his parents divorced, and he moved with his mother to the city of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, Cherkasy region. In 1990, he began studying at Korsun-Shevchenkivska Secondary School No. 1, where he completed 9 grades. He studied well, particularly interested in the history of Ukraine and world history. After finishing school, he entered the Kirovohrad Vocational Technical School for training workers, where he obtained a welding specialty (studying at a branch in Kryvyi Rih). In 2001-2002, he served in the mandatory military service at the 20th Mobile Command Point of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stationed in Kyiv (military unit A-3521). Later, he worked in his specialty. He actively engaged in sports: Greco-Roman wrestling, athletics, and played for the football teams "Maksymir," "Sporting-Korsun," winning the title of champion of the 1st league of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi district in mini-football for the 2012-2013 season. Since the end of 2013, he participated in the events of the Revolution of Dignity as part of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi self-defense. With the start of military actions in Eastern Ukraine, together with several fellow countrymen, he volunteered for the Ministry of Internal Affairs battalion "Azov," receiving the call sign Falcon. On August 10, near Ilovaisk, he sustained a severe abdominal injury while trying to save two comrades who came under sniper fire (police privates Andriy Dromin (Svitlyak) and Mykola Berezovyi (Bereza) were killed in that battle). He underwent dozens of surgeries at the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Clinical Hospital named after I. Mechnikov and at the National Institute of Surgery and Transplantology named after O. Shalimov in the capital. After 44 days of fighting for his life, he died on September 23, 2014, in the Bundeswehr military hospital in Ulm, Germany.