Yurii S. Lozko (Trotyl)

21-year-old sapper Yuriy Lozko (call sign Trotile) was killed on November 13, 2022, in the area of the village of Maksim Gorky in Kherson region. While performing a combat mission to clear mines in the outskirts of the village, he triggered a tripwire and sustained fatal shrapnel wounds. Yuriy was born in the village of Pidluby, Zhytomyr region. In 2018, he graduated from the local school after completing 11 grades. The following year, he obtained a carpenter-machine operator qualification at the Kyiv Higher Vocational School of Woodworking. He worked in his profession in Kyiv for some time. In 2020, he was drafted for mandatory military service, from which he was discharged at the end of December 2021. He loved animals very much, which were always with him even during the war. After the start of the full-scale invasion, Yuriy took up the defense of his homeland. On March 1, 2022, he joined the ranks of the 99th Separate Battalion of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He held the position of sapper in the engineering-sapper platoon and went to the front. A month before his death, on October 11, 2022, he got married. He dreamed of his own home and children, family comfort, and peace in his country. "He knew how to love like no one else could. He was a ray of sunshine in my life and an example of a real man. Despite everything: the war, horror, and death around, he always smiled and joked, was an optimist, a rare find. He took the most out of life, lived it to the fullest, and was in a hurry to accomplish everything, as if he knew something. Yuriy had many plans that, unfortunately, he did not have time to realize," his wife Zhanna said. The soldier was buried in his native village. Yuriy is survived by his mother, wife, two brothers, relatives, friends, and comrades. Posthumously, soldier Yuriy Lozko was awarded the Emilian Village Council badge "For Services to the Emilian Community" and the district badge "For Services to the Zvyagel District."