Serhii O. Pavliuk (Poltina)

Biography, compiled with the help of relatives by fellow soldiers: "Pavliuk Serhiy Olegovych was born on March 24, 1986, in Vinnytsia. Serhiy Pavliuk's family is well-known and respected in the village of Penkivtsi in the Lityn district, from where the soldier's parents hail. His late grandmother on his father's side dedicated her life to teaching children music, created and led a local amateur group for a long time. Two of Serhiy's uncles also became musicians, the older one, also named Serhiy, even accompanied Mykola Hnatiuk for a time. From September 1, 1992, Serhiy studied at Vinnytsia Secondary School No. 19, graduating in 2001. In 2004, he was drafted for compulsory military service, which he completed at the canine training center of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (military unit 2418, in the town of Velyki Mosty, Sokal district, Lviv region). In August of the same year, he was transferred for further military service to the security platoon of the Central Storage and Supply Base of the State Border Guard Service (military unit 1471), and in 2005 he was discharged to the reserve. In 2006-2007, he served under contract in the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (military unit A1459, in Vinnytsia) as a line supervisor. Since 2010, he worked at the Vinnytsia Confectionery Factory of the ROSHEN Confectionery Corporation. In August 2014, Serhiy was called up for military service by mobilization and appointed as a machine gunner in the operational assignment battalion of the Vinnytsia regiment of the Western Operational-Territorial Association of the National Guard of Ukraine — starting in May, the servicemen of this unit held the defense at the hottest checkpoints in Luhansk region, in the area of the "Bakhmutka" road, in the village of Krymske and the village of Nyzhne. Since October 2014, Senior Soldier Pavliuk completed three deployments to the area of the anti-terrorist operation, repeatedly demonstrating courage and professionalism. During the defense of the 32nd checkpoint, he was wounded, but after treatment, he returned to duty. Only during his last deployment did Serhiy and his fellow soldiers endure 24 battles without suffering losses… On July 12, 2015, around 19:00, on the 156 km of the Kyiv-Kharkiv highway, near the town of Pyriatyn in the Poltava region, the driver of a Volkswagen Jetta tried to wedge into a convoy of 40 National Guard vehicles with soldiers returning home after rotation, resulting in a collision with a BAZ bus that was moving in the seventeenth position in the convoy. The bus was thrown to the right and crashed into the refrigerated trailer of a DAF truck. As a result of this accident, 29-year-old Senior Soldier Serhiy Pavliuk died, who had literally changed seats in the front row just 5 minutes before the collision, swapping places with a comrade. Serhiy's body was delivered to Vinnytsia on July 14, and the next day he was buried with military honors in the Alley of Glory at the city cemetery of Vinnytsia." Vadym Lisnichenko, combat comrade: "Serhiy had many plans. He wanted to play with his son to his heart's content. The last time he saw him was 2 months ago, in May. A few minutes before the accident, he swapped places with another soldier. I was sitting next to him and saw how he wanted to get home as quickly as possible — he was flying as if on wings. But due to someone else's fault, intolerance, foolishness, he died on peaceful land." Dmytro Syomchak, unit commander: "During his last deployment to the ATO area, Serhiy successfully endured 24 battles, giving a worthy rebuff to the enemy. At that time, we did not lose a single soldier on the battlefield. Who could have thought that death would await us on the way home… Serhiy was a skilled fighter whom you could rely on under any circumstances. He never let anyone down. Once he gave his word, he held it honorably until the end. With people like him, it was not scary to go into battle. It is not scary to live on this earth because the sky above it is held by our Serhiy."