Vadym I. Kozenko (Vadym)

Senior soldier Vadym Kozenko was killed on February 12, 2023, while performing a combat mission near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. In January, the defender turned 29 years old. Vadym was born in the village of Kostiantynivka, Kirovohrad region. He graduated from the local school. In 2012, he obtained the profession of a car repair mechanic at the Smila Center for Worker Training and Retraining. He was married and lived with his family in the city of Smila, Cherkasy region. He worked in the construction industry. In his free time, he loved to go fishing. During the full-scale Russian invasion, the man joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was a rifleman of the 206th separate battalion of territorial defense. Together with his comrades-in-arms, he defended the Kyiv region, and then went to the Donetsk region. "My husband is a part of me that was torn away from me and the children. He was a good man. We miss him very much," said the wife of the fallen, Anna. "He could not meet his wife from the maternity hospital and enjoy the joy of meeting the newborn child, because he chose resistance: the cold suburbs of the capital, the dirt of the dugouts and the clatter of weapons. Vadym chose to defend Ukraine so that the child would grow up in a free and peaceful country, and he was killed on the battlefield. Clear eyes, sincere deeds. A man of action, hope and righteous work. He did not complain, but acted. He went forward where others faltered, charged with energy and confidence, burned with a real fire of anger towards the enemy. Vadym was a conscientious, uncompromising, courageous and brave warrior: strong in spirit and faithful to his oath," it was written on the page of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The defender was buried in the city of Smila. At home, Vadym was awaited by his mother, wife and two sons.