Yurii I. Blokha

Yuriy Ihorovych Blokha was born on July 22, 1988, in the village of Serhiivka, Mykolaiv Oblast. Since childhood, he dreamed of becoming a football coach. He graduated from Mykolaiv National University named after V. O. Sukhomlynskyi with a degree in "Physical Culture and Sports and Pre-conscription Training." He also underwent training at the military department, receiving the rank of junior lieutenant in reserve. After his studies, Yuriy Blokha worked as a children's football coach at the Bereznehuvatka and Snihurivka Children's and Youth Sports Schools, as well as a physical education and pre-conscription training teacher at the Bereznehuvatka secondary education institution of I-III levels. In 2014, when Russia attacked Ukraine, Yuriy took his students to peaceful demonstrations, sent their drawings to the military on the front lines, and volunteered. On February 24, 2022, after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, he went to serve in the Bashtanka territorial defense battalion. He was the head of supply for checkpoints in the Bereznehuvatka district. On March 1, 2022, when a large group of enemies was moving towards a checkpoint near the village of Murakhivka in Mykolaiv Oblast, Yuriy, along with other soldiers, engaged in battle with the Russian occupiers. In that battle, Yuriy Blokha sustained three gunshot wounds that were incompatible with life. The hero was buried on March 2, 2022, in the village of Vysunsk in Mykolaiv Oblast. For his personal courage and heroism displayed in defending the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for his loyalty to the military oath, Yuriy Ivanovych Blokha was posthumously awarded the title of "Hero of Ukraine" with the Order of the Golden Star.