Vitalii A. Pyshniak

Vitaly Pyshnyak, a paratrooper, was killed on August 4, 2022, in a battle with Russian invaders near the village of Dolyna in the Donetsk region. The defender sustained shrapnel wounds to the neck. He would have turned 46 in 11 days. Vitaly was born in Zaporizhzhia. He graduated from the local school, served in the army, and upon returning got married. He lived in the village of Novovolodymyrivka, Zaporizhzhia region, working on a farm and then cultivating the land, working hard in the field. In his free time, he was engaged with tractors, assembling two of them himself and wanting to build a third, but did not have the time. With the start of the full-scale invasion, Vitaly defended Ukraine from Russian invaders as part of the 90th separate airmobile battalion of the 81st brigade of the airborne assault troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was a rifleman-sniper. The man, together with his comrades-in-arms, defended his homeland in the hot spots of the front, but his life was cut short in the Donetsk region. "My dad was a very good and decent person. He loved his family and the work he was engaged in very much. He also had a lot of unfinished business," his daughter Karina said. The defender was buried in the village of Novovolodymyrivka, Zaporizhzhia region. Vitaly is survived by his wife, daughter, grandson, and son-in-law.