Volodymyr Z. Rurak

Senior soldier Volodymyr Rurak was killed in action on March 14, 2022, near the village of Terny in the Donetsk region. He sustained fatal shrapnel wounds while performing a combat mission. On February 23, the defender turned 31 years old. Volodymyr was born and lived in Lviv. He obtained a profession as a car mechanic and gas-electric welder at a local college. However, in civilian life, he chose to be a driver. Initially, he worked as a cash-in-transit driver and later got a job as a driver for the road construction company "ONUR." He collected coins and loved fishing and cooking. From 2014 to 2016, he participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO). With the onset of the full-scale Russian invasion, he returned to defend his country by rejoining the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He fought in the ranks of the 24th separate mechanized brigade named after Prince Danylo. He was a senior sapper in the engineering-sapper platoon. "I still can't come to terms with this pain... Volodya was everything to me: a friend, a husband, a psychologist. I never knew what tears were with him (except from joy). He loved me boundlessly, protected me. As they say, from great love beautiful children are born, so he left behind a daughter, his little copy, who now, unfortunately, sees him only in photographs. His motto was 'No one but us.' Irreparable loss, pain, sorrow..." shared the wife of the fallen, Tetiana. Volodymyr was buried at the Lychakiv Cemetery in his hometown of Lviv. The defender is survived by his mother, sister, wife, and daughter, who was only 1.5 years old at the time of her father's death. The soldier was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage of the 3rd degree.