Taras V. Didukh (Skorpion)

Senior Lieutenant Taras Didukh (call sign Scorpio) killed in action on February 26, 2022, in the Pokrovsk Raion, in the area of Shylo-Balka, during a hostile mortar attack on a column of Ukrainian military. The officer was 25 years old. Taras was born and lived in Lviv. He stu at the Lviv Heroes of Kruty Military Lyceum and then graduated from the Odesa Military Academy. He loved trips to the Carpathians and fishing. He was interested in cars. Since 2018, Taras served in the 80th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade. He was a platoon commander. Together with his unit, he participated in the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas. From the first day of the full-scale war, the officer continued to fulfill his military duty and defended Ukraine from Russian occupiers. "Taras wanted to be a military man all his conscious life. He only considered airborne troops for himself, extremely loved parachute jumps. After graduation, he went to serve in the 80th ODSHBr, before the full-scale invasion, he was in ATO in Shyrokyne, in JFO - in Stanytsia Luhanska. He met the full-scale war on the training ground in southern Ukraine. He as one of the first. He was very devoted to service and duty. Always said that he had to protect his loved ones. He never avoided the opportunity to go to the front, always said that he was a combat officer, not a staff officer," said Taras's beloved Tetyana. The defender was buried at the Lychakiv Cemetery in his native Lviv. Taras is survived by his mother, beloved girlfriend, friends, and comrades-in-arms. Posthumously, Senior Lieutenant Taras Didukh was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky III degree.