Young Ukrainians killed in Russia’s war inspire others to fight on

Editor’s Note: The following article is the latest in a series of reports by the Kyiv Independent about the memorialization of Ukraine’s fallen soldiers.
Ukrainians gathered at war memorials around the country on Oct. 1, the country’s National Defenders Day, to honor the soldiers killed defending their country from Russia’s invasion.
At 9:00 a.m. on Kyiv’s Independence Square, a couple hundred people stood in silence as cars on the busy street stopped for a few minutes to commemorate the fallen.
Many held the portraits of defenders — their friends, relatives, and loved ones, killed or captured by Russia — a testament to a fight that is paid for with the blood of its citizens who have chosen to take up arms to defend their country.
Among the photos and flags on Independence Square, each representing a human life, people also held up handwritten signs.
“All the beautiful ones stay optimistic,” said one sign, quoting a prominent Ukrainian activist and fighter Pavlo Petrychenko, who was killed on the front earlier this year. He represented a new generation that grew up in an independent Ukraine but had to fight for their country’s survival and better future most of their adult lives as activists and soldiers.
A third year into the existential war waged by Russia, Ukrainians are widely quoting many of them, finding inspiration in the words they left behind. The Kyiv Independent put together some of their most shared quotes that are becoming a part of the nation’s legacy.
A journalist and educator in civilian life, Iryna Tsybukh volunteered as a military medic during the full-scale Russian invasion. She shared her patriotic views on social media for tens of thousands of followers, becoming a leading voice on the memorialization of fallen soldiers and a “moral compass” for many Ukrainians.
After Tsybukh was killed during a frontline evacuation in May, her brother published her posthumous letter that received over 100,000 likes on Instagram, inspiring many people:
“To have freedom, you need to also hold other kinds of values. You need to understand yourself, to clearly know who you are for yourself, what your personal happiness is, and how you can reach it. Once you have the answers to this question, the most important thing is to keep going.”
One of the youngest defenders of Mariupol who survived Russia’s siege of the city’s Azovstal steel mill and Russian captivity, Nazarii Hryntsevych continued to fight in the Azov regiment after he returned to Ukraine in a prisoner swap.
Hryntsevych’s most famous quote came from his comrade’s Instagram story, where he speaks in an Azovstal shelter — fully equipped for a fight, fresh wound on his face:
“Whatever you got going, love your mom, eat your porridge, and love Ukraine.”
At 16, Roman Ratushny was among a large group of Ukrainian students violently attacked and beaten by the Ukrainian riot police during their peaceful protest in 2013 against President Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Kremlin government.
The ensuing public outrage sparked the Euromaidan revolution. Ratushny, one of the prominent young activists who emerged there, fought illegal construction in a Kyiv park despite the threats from Ukrainian oligarchs before he volunteered to fight for Ukraine in 2022.
After he was killed in battle the same year, people were galvanized by his adamant views that peace in Ukraine is impossible while Ukrainians tolerate any kind of Russian influence:
“Burn the whole Russian subculture within yourselves. Burn all childhood memories related to the Russian-Soviet. Burn your relationships with relatives or friends on the other side, with everyone who is a carrier of the Russian subculture. Otherwise, it will burn you out.”
Andrii Pilshchykov, a Ukrainian top gun pilot of the new generation known as ‘Juice,’ was instrumental in Ukraine’s efforts to get its first batch of F-16 fighter jets from Western allies in August.
Having trained with American pilots before, he used his high-profile status for numerous interviews with Western media and personal connections in the U.S. Air Force to persuade Western partners to send the fighter jets to Ukraine during a media campaign stretching for over two years.
After many successful battle missions, Pilshchykov was killed in a mid-air collision of two Ukrainian jets in 2023. On Sept. 30, the eve of the Defenders Day, President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded him the title Hero of Ukraine.
Like many activists, he urged Ukrainians to prepare for the hard fight in his posts online:
“I am reminding you that we have not won yet. There are still many battles ahead. This is not the time to relax. Learn, train, get equipped, act. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
Maksym Kryvtsov was a poet and a photographer whose sensitive work is bound to Russia’s war against Ukraine, which he fought for seven years in the Ukrainian army.
A machine gunner on the front, Kryvtsov had a unique connection with his readers that continued online. A day before he was killed in a Russian artillery strike on his position, he posted verses from his first and only book, “Poems From The Loophole,” as his Facebook readers posted numbers of the specific lines and pages they wanted to see.
“Ninety percent of the poems here are about death,” he wrote then before his own name became a synonym for the new generation of Ukrainian artists killed by Russia.
Now, Ukrainians quote a line of his poem that speaks about the many deaths that Russia’s war brought to Ukraine:
“When people ask me what war is, I will answer without hesitation: names.”
Dmytro Kotsiubailo was the first volunteer fighter outside the Ukrainian army to receive the title “Hero of Ukraine” during his lifetime. One of the youngest commanders in Ukrainian history, he served for all 10 years of his adult life, leading his battalion “Da Vinci Wolves.”
For someone called “legendary,” Kotsiubailo carried himself humbly and treasured his troops. He was mortally wounded by Russian artillery in 2023 while checking if everyone in his unit took shelter during the attack. In his last interview with Ukrainian media, Kotsiubailo’s dedication and belief in his comrades shines in the final sentence:
“Weapons are good, but everything depends on people. Our people are the best. They will master anything, they will do anything. That’s why we will win.”
As a prominent activist at the forefront of Ukrainian civil society, Pavlo Petrychenko participated in EuroMaidan, fought to prosecute corrupt officials, and demanded justice for fellow activists, such as his friend Kateryna Handziuk, who was killed in a politically motivated attack in 2018.
For the first few months of Russia’s full-blown invasion, Petrychenko helped build one of the largest volunteer organizations currently aiding the Ukrainian army, the Serhii Prytula Charity Foundation. When he joined the army as a drone operator, Petrychenko kept speaking out against injustice in his sharp interviews and tweets.
He was killed days before his latest online petition caused President Zelensky to sign a decree on April 20 to restrict online gambling among soldiers — a testament to his signature determination:
“We just gotta keep pressing and pressing, and they ought to fall. Because in this war, we stand for the truth. And whoever stands for the truth must win. It has always been so through history. And if we endure this moment, then we must win.”
Throughout his life, animal rights activist and volunteer Kostiantyn Yuzviuk seemed to know exactly where he stood in his views and lived up to them, promoting veganism, fighting the violent treatment of animals, rescuing pets from the front, and volunteering to fight in the Ukrainian army.
His views made a difference beyond his lifetime after his unique personal funeral that he designed himself. Yuzviuk’s story touched many Ukrainians and made it an inspiration for others — exactly as he once advised:
“Look for motivation within yourself, or become one for somebody else.”