Vasyl Yu. Baranov

Senior soldier Vasyl Baranov was killed on September 17, 2022, in the settlement of Spirne in the Donetsk region. When the mortar shelling began, the soldier was at his position. He lacked just a few seconds to jump into the shelter. The defender was 42 years old. Vasyl was born in Saratov, Russia. At the age of 8, he moved with his family to his father's homeland, the city of Shostka in the Sumy region, where he graduated from school No. 12. Throughout his childhood, he participated in sports, attended the youth club "Patriot," and was particularly passionate about karate. He obtained a qualification as a lathe operator at vocational school No. 13. In 2021, he enrolled at the Sumy National Agrarian University to study "Construction and Civil Engineering." For the last 5 years, he worked in the capital as a monolithic reinforcement worker. In 2006, Vasyl got married, and a year later, the couple welcomed their daughter Dasha, followed by their son Vanya. In 2021, the family bought a home and moved to Irpin in the Kyiv region. The happy family was making plans for the future. But then the great war began. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Vasyl took his wife and children to relatives and went to enlist in the territorial defense. Many were eager to join, with preference given to those with military experience. When it became dangerous in the city, he went with his family to the settlement of Skole in the Lviv region. There, he immediately went to the enlistment office. He dreamed of joining the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade, where two of his friends were already serving at that time. He was refused multiple times, but he was persistent. In May, Vasyl went to Kamianets-Podilskyi for training. On June 5, he was sent to Okhtyrka in the Sumy region. When he was last home in July, he confessed to his wife that he had transferred to the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Hetman Ivan Mazepa and was going to Donetsk. He held the position of sapper and driver. “Vasyl never sat idle. He was always doing something, he was enthusiastic. This is how he was remembered by his comrades,” said the wife of the fallen, Liubov. “The damned and cruel war took away a father, husband, son, friend... The small cemetery at the entrance to our city keeps growing so that we live, so that we rethink something. Believers should pray for the soul of the deceased, others should remember him with kind words and honor his memory. And everyone should realize their lifelong debt to the relatives, widows, children of those who gave the most they could sacrifice— their lives. R.I.P. Rest in peace, Dear Vasyl... Eternal and bright memory to the hero...” wrote his friend Dmytro Danylenko. Vasyl was buried at the Alley of Glory in Shostka. He is survived by his wife, son, and daughter.