Serhii V. Nikolaiev

Born on February 14, 1972, in the city of Kyiv. Graduated from high school in Kyiv.$Worked as a designer at an advertising agency in Kyiv. Since April 2008, he has been a staff photo correspondent for the newspaper "Segodnya," in Kyiv. He has been on assignments in Iran, Somalia, Libya, Kenya, Turkey, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.$He was a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.$In 2013, his personal exhibition "Non-Childhood Childhood" took place - about the conditions in which children grow up during war.$In the winter of 2013-2014, during the Revolution of Dignity, he made photo reports on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, and was injured multiple times.$Since February 2015, he has been in the zone of the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine. Serhiy Nikolayev was making reports for the newspaper "Segodnya" and for his future photo exhibition.$On February 28, 2015, Serhiy Nikolayev, along with his friend Bohdan Rossynskyi, accompanied by a fighter of the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps "Right Sector," Mykola Flerko, were taking photographs in the village of Pisky in the Yasynuvata district of Donetsk region. While returning to the base, the correspondents and the fighter of the DUC "Right Sector" came under mortar fire, one of the shells exploded near them. As a result of the explosion, Serhiy Nikolayev sustained serious injuries from shrapnel in his right leg and arm, as well as multiple shrapnel wounds to his entire body. He was taken to the railway hospital in the city of Krasnoarmiisk (now Pokrovsk) in Donetsk region, where he was operated on. Doctors fought for the life of the photo correspondent, but their efforts proved futile. Serhiy Nikolayev died from his injuries on the operating table.$As a result of the explosion, the fighter of the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps "Right Sector," Mykola Flerko, also sustained a severe shrapnel wound to the neck and soon died. Photo correspondent Bohdan Rossynskyi suffered a minor shrapnel wound to the arm.$He is buried at the Lisove Cemetery in Kyiv.