Vasyl I. Paniv

35-year-old junior sergeant Vasyl Paniv was killed on April 19, 2022 in the area of the village of Novomykolaivka in the Mykolaiv region. During enemy mortar shelling, he suffered fatal multiple shrapnel wounds. He was considered missing until June 2023. Vasyl was born in the village of Zalokot in the Lviv region. He graduated from the Drohobych State Pedagogical University. He worked abroad. In 2014, he took up the defense of Ukraine from the enemy, participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation. Then he was engaged in national-patriotic education of youth as part of the All-Ukrainian Public Organization "Halytskyi Khrest". With the start of the full-scale invasion, Vasyl again took up the defense of his country from the Russian occupiers. He served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was a sapper of the 14th separate mechanized brigade. "A person who feared nothing and understood that he had to defend his state, that it was his duty. He was supposed to return to work abroad, because he had a contract, but despite this, without hesitation, he remained in Ukraine and went to defend it, as in 2014. He loved life, helped the guys who still did not understand anything in military affairs, taught them. A very heavy loss for our family. We searched for him for over a year, and his body lay all this time in the occupied territory... It is very difficult to understand that he is no longer there. We want to leave in memory that he is a true Hero who was not afraid of anything. On the day of Vasyl's death, he and his comrades-in-arms went to pick up their comrades from the landing, but did not have time... They were shelled with mortars, it was impossible to survive. Vasyl and his comrades-in-arms was killed on the spot..." - said the sister of the fallen Khrystyna Myhun. The warrior was buried in his native village. Vasyl is survived by his parents, three sisters, two daughters, other relatives, friends and comrades-in-arms.