Yurii M. Leliavskyi

Lelyavskyi Yurii Mykolaiovych was born in 1973. He was a professional journalist. In civilian life, he worked for many years in various publications and on nationwide TV channels. In 2015, he worked as a journalist for the "Media-Star" news agency. In 2014–2015, he participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation, covering the alarming events in Eastern Ukraine. He was taken prisoner by the Russian occupiers. After being released from captivity, understanding the importance of the information war and being a reserve officer, he returned to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in the positions of head of the press service and public relations service of the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade and the 80th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade. He met the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the south of the country, where his military unit was engaged in combat. He always worked on the front lines, covering combat operations, being one of the first to enter Ukrainian settlements liberated from the enemy. He repeatedly filmed the combat operations of airborne assault, artillery, and engineering-sapper units, carrying out tasks side by side with the paratroopers for several days. For this, Yurii was respected in the brigade, and his materials were repeatedly published in domestic and foreign media. He was killed on September 28, 2022, in a battle with Russian occupiers while carrying out a task as part of an airborne assault unit (the location is not specified).