Vitalii I. Trofimchuk (Snaiper)

Senior soldier Vitaliy Trofimchuk (call sign Sniper) was killed on September 16, 2023, near the village of Verbove in the Zaporizhia region. The warrior would have turned 33 in a week. Vitaliy was from the city of Zhmerynka in the Vinnytsia region. He studied at the Zhmerynka Higher Vocational School. He was passionate about cars and everything related to them, especially repair and painting. In 2014-2018, the man fought for Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war. He served in the Vinnytsia Special Purpose Battalion. He participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) / Joint Forces Operation (JFO) in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. After returning to peaceful life, he worked as a long-distance driver. With the start of the full-scale invasion, Vitaliy returned to the military to defend his country from the enemy again. He served in the 14th Assault Brigade "Red Viburnum" of the National Guard of Ukraine. He was a scout in the reconnaissance platoon of the special forces reconnaissance unit. "Vitalik has been participating in combat operations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since 2014. He was near Bakhmut when it was hell there. Then he was in the Zaporizhia direction when offensive actions were taking place there. He participated in the liberation of many villages in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Zaporizhia regions, the last liberated village being Robotyne. Vitaliy honorably and with dignity fulfilled his duty as a citizen of Ukraine to defend the state. Until his last breath, he remained faithful to his comrades-in-arms, his people, and his homeland," his wife said. "Kind, sincere, polite, hardworking, always ready to help and provide the necessary support. This is how Vitaliy was in peaceful life, this is how his comrades-in-arms who fought with him knew him... The heart of our fellow countryman stopped at the age of 32. He did not live to see... He did not dream to the end... He did not love enough..." the Zhmerynka City Council noted. The hero was buried in his hometown. Vitaliy is survived by his parents Ihor and Raisa, three brothers: Dmytro, Ihor, and Andriy, his pregnant wife Yulia, and son Kyrylo.