Serhii V. Ilinov (Yeher)

Senior soldier Serhii Ilyin (call sign Yager) was killed on May 8, 2023 while carrying out a combat mission near the settlement of Yampil in the Donetsk region. The fighter was 56 years old. Serhii was born in the settlement of Kyrylivka, Sumy region. He received secondary education. He got married and created a strong family. He loved hunting and fishing. He was well-oriented in the forest, so he received the call sign Yager during the war. He worked abroad and very much wanted his relatives to live in a peaceful country. That is why during the full-scale invasion, the man immediately decided that he had to go and defend Ukraine. He became a serviceman of the 58th separate motorized infantry brigade named after Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky. He took the position of a sniper-rifleman and went to the front line to return home with victory. "For me, our father is a real hero. He bravely defended his Motherland. At the beginning of the war, he was not even in Ukraine. Learning about the war, he returned home to defend his native land and his family. Dad always said: 'Who, if not me?'. From the first days of the war, he voluntarily enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Dad wanted to be where the fierce battles were going on. He was 56 years old, he could have been in the Sumy region and defended us here. But he wanted to be in the Donetsk region. And he told us that we need to be there so that the enemy does not come here. In life, he was a man-holiday. That's how it was - wherever he was, it was always a holiday. He had a lot of friends. He only did good to people. We love and remember him very much. He is forever in our hearts. His granddaughter is only two years old and she knows that her grandfather is a Hero. Every time we come to the cemetery, she sings 'Oh, in the meadow the red viburnum' to her grandfather and says: 'Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!'. We are all waiting for Victory," said the deceased's daughter-in-law Viktoria. The defender was buried in his native settlement. Serhii is survived by his father, wife, son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, relatives and friends.