Valerii I. Shytyi (Shytyi)

Senior Sergeant Valeriy Shytyi was killed on July 28, 2022 near the village of Nesterіanka in the Zaporizhzhia region. While carrying out a reconnaissance mission to capture a prisoner at an observation post, he received a fatal wound. Until April 2023, the fighter was considered missing. He would have turned 50 years old. Valeriy was born in the capital. For the last 20 years, he lived with his family in Irpin, Kyiv region. In 2015, he obtained a higher education at the Academy of Municipal Management. He was a participant in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO). In civilian life, he was a private entrepreneur - he had his own car service station, and was a highly skilled auto body repairman. During the full-scale Russian invasion, the man again stood up to defend his country from the enemy. He served in the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He held the position of squad commander - vehicle commander of the reconnaissance platoon of the repair and recovery battalion. However, he carried out combat missions as the deputy commander of the reconnaissance platoon. "On February 24, we met on the shores of the Red Sea, in Egypt. It was the birthday of my beloved. The family is waiting at home. The sky in Ukraine is closed, the flight is canceled. For a week, we tried to fly to Europe. Then Turkey, Austria, the Czech Republic - and on March 5, Valera was already at the military enlistment office. Having experience in the ATO, he trained the fighters for their tasks. The guys thanked him for saving their lives. Then Irpin, Bucha, Moschun, Zaporizhzhia. On July 28, my beloved did not return from the combat mission. For nine months, we searched, hoped and believed in a miracle... He was never aloof from the events in Ukraine: participation in the Maidan, the ATO, the full-scale war. Above all in the world, he loved his family," said the wife of the fallen warrior, Natalia Kostylova. Valeriy was buried on April 26, 2023 on the Alley of Glory in Irpin. The defender left behind a wife, two daughters, a grandson and a sister.