Vasyl I. Kurnitskyi (Tato)

Sergeant Major Vasyl Kurnitskyi (call sign Dad) was killed on July 14, 2023, during an assault near the village of Staromaiorskoye in the Donetsk region. He would have turned 47 on September 29. Vasyl was born in the city of Kopychyntsi, Ternopil region. He graduated from Rivne State University with a degree in economics. In 2014, he participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas. In civilian life, he was a private entrepreneur, engaged in furniture production. He built a carpentry workshop. Later, he mastered the profession of a long-distance driver to acquire another machine for production. Since 2021, he has been working on trucks, including abroad. He was passionate about auto racing and skiing. With the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, the man returned to Ukraine and once again took up arms to protect his home, family, and country from the occupiers. He served in the 35th Separate Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy. He was the commander of a grenade launcher unit in the 88th Battalion. "A person who never feared difficulties. A warrior who went to the front from the first days of the Anti-Terrorist Operation to defend the state borders of our country. And later, in the first days of the full-scale invasion, having a well-paid job abroad, he returned to Ukraine and again stood up to defend our state," said the deceased's niece, Ksenia Oleksyn. The marine was buried in his hometown. At home, Vasyl was awaited by his mother Olha Vasylivna, wife Oksana, daughters Khrystyna and Anastasia, and other relatives and friends.