Vitalii V. Polonnikov (Havrik)

Serviceman Vitaliy Polonnikov (call sign Havrik) was killed in July 2024. He was forever 31 years old. Vitaliy was born in Kyiv, graduated from high school, and then the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. Since 2019, he has worked in the municipal organization "Municipal Guard", and in 2021 he was appointed head of the department of physical and technical protection of municipal employees. For a long time, Vitaliy headed the public organization "Movement of Veterans of Kyiv", later became the chairman of the Council of Veterans of Kyiv. "Thanks to his perseverance and the fact that he brought every started matter to the end, combat veterans were able to find employment in municipal organizations of the capital, receive social and psychological assistance, use social taxis equipped with everything necessary for people with disabilities," his colleagues from the "Municipal Guard" said. From the first days of the war, since 2014, right after the Maidan, Vitaliy voluntarily went to the front. He fought as part of the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps. Very quickly, he went from a private soldier to the commander of one of the units of the 5th battalion of the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps. He took part in battles in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. "He was one of the first volunteers in Ukraine to receive the status of a participant in hostilities. But for the sake of a fair attitude of the state towards all volunteers, he began a complex public activity to determine the role of volunteer formations in the fight against Russian aggression," the "Municipal Guard" wrote. A month before the start of the full-scale invasion, Vitaliy joined the creation of the coordination headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine for interaction with volunteer units, which at the beginning of the war were promptly armed and took up the defense of the country. "It is thanks to such as him that representatives of volunteer territorial defense formations massively and in an organized manner joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the "Municipal Guard" noted. For personal bravery shown during the defense of the Kyiv region, the defender was awarded the Order of Courage of the III degree. After the Kyiv region, Vitaliy fought in the Kherson region, then in Bakhmut, Zaporizhzhia, Serebryansky forest, Avdiivka. "Vitaliy Polonnikov will be remembered by all of us as a person of incredible positive energy, a truly respected public figure and a real Ukrainian patriot," his colleagues from the "Municipal Guard" said. The defender left behind his wife Natalia, daughter Darya, and mother Svitlana Petrivna.