Vitalii M. Vlasenko

Vlasenko Vitaliy Mykolayovych was born on January 24, 1973, in the city of Lubny, Poltava region. Vitaliy Mykolayovych taught the subject "Defense of the Fatherland" at the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Pedagogical Vocational College named after A. Yu. Krymskyi. Before working at the college, he served in the border troops, and a month before the start of the war, he returned to service. He taught students to be brave and courageous, to love their homeland, and to be ready to give their lives for the peace of the Ukrainian people. He raised his sons in the same way. He was like that himself. From the first days, Vitaliy was in the hottest spots of the struggle for the victory of good over evil, for the peace of his students, colleagues, friends, and family. In 2008, Lieutenant Colonel Vitaliy Vlasenko retired from military service in the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In difficult times for the homeland, at the beginning of 2022, the officer made a decision and signed a contract for military service with the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. In a short time of service in the 3rd Border Detachment of the State Border Guard Service, holding the position of senior officer of the border service organization department of the headquarters, Vitaliy Vlasenko made significant efforts to prepare the personnel of the 3rd Border Detachment for combat. From February 24 to March 6, 2022, the officer, as part of a combined group of the rapid response border command "Novopskov," together with units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, performed military duty in the combat zone — near the cities of Starobilsk and Kreminna in the Luhansk region. On March 6, 2022, during the performance of a combat mission on the southeastern outskirts of the village of Zhitlivka in the Luhansk region, Lieutenant Colonel Vitaliy Vlasenko, as part of a combined group from the rapid response border command "Novopskov," advanced to the area of the railway line to block the enemy's troop movements. The border unit was the first to take fire and immediately engaged in battle. The defense was maintained at the designated line under heavy enemy fire from small arms and mortars. Lieutenant Colonel Vitaliy Vlasenko, shoulder to shoulder with his comrades, actively repelled the enemy's advance for 6 hours and held the occupied line. During the next shelling, when Lieutenant Colonel Vitaliy Vlasenko and a comrade tried to pull an injured officer to safety, one of the shells exploded in close proximity to them... Due to the heavy enemy fire, further attempts to reach the location of the border guards were futile. The combined group was forced to retreat to a reserve line. The fallen border guard is survived by his wife and two sons.