Yevhenii O. Brakh (Mali)

Machine gunner Yevheniy Brakh (call sign Mali) was killed on September 21, 2022, while performing a combat mission near the city of Energodar in the Zaporizhzhia region. The warrior did not live 11 days to see his 27th birthday. Yevheniy was born in the village of Mashivka in the Poltava region. He spent his childhood in the village of Seleschyna. After the 9th grade, he entered the Poltava Technological College of Food Technology, where he mastered the profession of a technician for the adjustment and launch of refrigeration installations. He then stu at the National University of Food Technologies. He participated in the Revolution of Dignity. He did not graduate from the university and went to study in Poland. This was only an excuse to fulfill one of his most cherished desires — to join the French Foreign Legion. Yevheniy successfully passed all the tests. In September 2015, he was accepted into the ranks of the Armed Forces of France. During his service, he was repeatedly awarded honors. He completed his service in September 2020 with the rank of corporal. He was in the reserve of the French Foreign Legion. He lived and worked in France. He ran his own YouTube channel and was an active Instagram blogger. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russian occupiers, Yevheniy returned to Ukraine and took up the defense of his homeland. He joined the volunteer battalion "Tradition and Order." In the summer of 2022, he underwent training in Great Britain. After that, he was accepted into the special operations forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "Brother. Warrior. True. Soul. Patriot. The best among us. The best of the best. An example for all. You will always remain in our hearts! I mourn again! We will meet in another place!" wrote comrade Ihor Noman. "Friend, thank you for protecting Ukraine and for your positivity that always charged and supported me, even in the most difficult moments of this damned war," wrote friend Ihor Chadyuk. The warrior was buried at the Alley of Heroes in the Zaturynskyi Cemetery in Poltava. Yevheniy is survived by his parents, sister, beloved, and a son who was born in the summer of 2022. Posthumously, the defender was awarded the Order of "For Courage" III degree.