Volodymyr D. Polyvoda (Advokat)

51-year-old Volodymyr Polyvoda was killed in action on March 25, 2022, near the city of Izium in the Kharkiv region. The defender sustained a mine-explosive injury during a battle that lasted continuously for two days. Volodymyr was born in the city of Irpin in the Kyiv region. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management. After graduation, he worked as a lawyer and became an attorney in 2013. He was fond of boxing and fishing. Since 2014, he had planned to join the ATO, but his wife became pregnant, and later their daughter was born. He stayed with his family. On the first day of the full-scale war, Volodymyr went to the military enlistment office in Kyiv to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was refused enlistment because he had no combat experience. On February 25, he took his family to Zhytomyr, found them shelter, and then went to the Zhytomyr military enlistment office for the second time. Eventually, Volodymyr became a serviceman in the 95th Separate Air Assault Brigade and went to war. He held the position of driver. He asked his family to go to Poland, saying it would give him peace of mind. His wife and daughter did just that. “Since then, the world has become completely different for me and my daughter. I don't know if things will ever be good again, but unfortunately, it will never be the same without him. It is impossible to describe in a few lines what kind of person he was and how much he loved us. It has been six months since my hero is gone, and I cannot find peace. I don't know anyone who loved Ukraine as much as he did. He always cherished our language and was a fighter for its purity. In the family, he corrected anyone who used Russisms and always asked: correct me if I speak incorrectly. He wanted our daughter to absorb the purity of our language from birth. He was always irritated by the imperial chauvinism of Russia. Many acquaintances tell me: ‘Why didn't you stop him?' I have only one answer: ‘If I had told my hero not to go, not to defend, I would have been unworthy of my hero,'” said his wife, Olena. The defender was buried at the Alley of Heroes in the Lisove Cemetery in Kyiv. Volodymyr is survived by his parents, wife, and 7-year-old daughter.