For Ruslan Chopiuk, fundamental human values mattered most — honesty, responsibility, and perseverance. He was shy yet determined: once he made a decision, it was impossible to dissuade him. Despite his reserved nature, Ruslan was remembered by his brothers-in-arms as friendly, resilient, and strong. He carried out orders conscientiously and faced his final battle with the honour of a Warrior: he told his parents that he would not retreat, even if it cost him his life.

Ruslan always chose to do what truly interested him. Although he did not stand out for outstanding academic achievements at school, learning came easily to him. He began his schooling in the village of Roztoky, Chernivtsi Oblast, and later, from the sixth grade, studied at the Bohdan Secondary School. From an early age, he was passionate about music and folk instruments. He graduated from the Rakhiv Children’s Music School, where he played in an orchestra together with his older brother Yurii and took part in regional stages of the tsymbaly (hammered dulcimer) performance competitions.

Ruslan’s love of music was passed down from his father, who actively nurtured his son’s talent. Together, they performed at concerts dedicated to important dates, as well as during New Year and Christmas celebrations. However, after finishing school in his native Zakarpattia region, Ruslan decided not to pursue further musical education. Instead, he moved to Zolochiv District in the Lviv region, where he studied at the Chervonenske Higher Vocational School and became qualified in  gas and electric welding. He took great pleasure in blacksmithing, crafting metal candlesticks with floral motifs and other artistic works. He would later give one of his works to a fellow soldier.

After completing his studies in Zolochiv, in June 2020 Ruslan returned home and immediately reported to the military enlistment office. This marked the beginning of his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where he completed his compulsory service in the Presidential Regiment. He was immensely proud to have served as part of the Presidential Honour Guard during the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence. For his dedicated service, Ruslan Chopiuk was awarded the medal “For Sacrifice and Love for Ukraine” and the commemorative medal “Participant of the 2021 Military Parade.”

In December 2021, after returning from the army, Ruslan decided to try working in the Czech Republic and left after obtaining a work visa. However, he managed to work abroad for only two months. The full-scale invasion changed his plans entirely — he returned home to defend Ukraine from russian aggression.

Ruslan joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine as an infantry soldier in the 15th Battalion of the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade. After completing a short training course, he was deployed to the front. His first intense battle took place in April, on Palm Sunday, near the city of Lyman. Over the following six months, he took part in numerous difficult assaults. Later, he was reassigned from infantry service to a gunner position on armoured vehicles.

Ruslan last saw his family in July 2022. His commander granted him a few days’ leave on his “word of honour” so that he could visit his mother and newborn baby sister at a maternity hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk. This was also the last time he met his brothers in person, visited his family home in the Zakarpattian village of Bohdan, and played the Ukrainian national anthem on the tsymbaly.

By that time, Ruslan had already suffered several concussions, which had affected his hearing and memory. He could have stayed behind for medical treatment, but chose to return to the front because, as he said, “the boys are waiting.”

Ruslan was making plans for the future. He was in a relationship and dreamed of buying a house. He asked his mother to look for a home in Rakhiv, near his native village. However, fate decided otherwise. On 15 October 2022, during a battle near Nova Kamianka in the Kherson region, he went missing in action.

His family held on to hope until the very end that Ruslan would return home alive. Yet, eleven months after his disappearance, on 19 September 2023, they received official confirmation of his death. Ruslan was laid to rest on the outskirts of his native village, at the foot of a mountain where, as a child, he used to gather mushrooms and berries together with his brother Yurii

Core values:

• Live with honesty
• Take responsibility
• Be persistent
• Value family
• Do what you love

Wise, strong, brave, charismatic, and dynamic, Iryna  burned with purpose and ignited others around her. She  is remembered as an idealist with a heightened sense of justice — someone who was always driven by the desire to help others and to make the world a better place. Those closest to her remember Iryna as caring, loving, and always ready to offer support. A person committed to constant learning, offering thoughtful advice, and giving herself fully to what she believed in.

“To have the strength to be a free person, one must be brave. Only the brave find happiness, and it is better to die running than to live rotting. Be worthy of the feats of our heroes, do not despair, be brave!” — Iryna wrote in her farewell letter.

A journalist by training, Iryna always lived with a strong sense of responsibility for her country. Freedom was her highest value. Her active civic stance took shape long before the full-scale invasion. Since  2015, she volunteered continuously, supporting the military and all those affected by the war.

In 2017, Iryna joined  Suspilne, Ukraine’s Public Broadcaster, and within two years, she became was a media manager overseeing Suspilne’s Donbas regional branch. She later became a key driver of reform at UA: Dnipro. She implemented grant-funded projects, produced documentary films, developed media literacy programmes for children, and cooperated with various NGOs.

In 2018, Iryna was a finalist for the professional journalism competition Honour of the Profession in the category “Best Report,” and in 2021, together with her colleagues at Suspilne, she won “Best Opinion Writing” in “Local Media.”

What she witnessed during the war in eastern Ukraine motivated Iryna to enrol in the master’s of Public Administration and Governance programme at the Kyiv School of Economics, where she was due to defend her thesis in 2022. After the war, she wanted “to become a good public administrator — to work effectively with crises, to keep learning, to serve, not to freeze in fear in difficult moments, and to take responsibility for decisions.”

“I believe that for real change to follow major upheavals, education is essential. Education and knowledge are the key to transformation, growth, and expanding one’s horizons,” Iryna said.

Iryna met the first days of the full-scale invasion in the Donetsk region, where she and her colleagues were presenting the documentary “Distance” about the lives of teenagers in remote villages of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Those around her understood that eventually, Iryna would be at war not only as a volunteer. From the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, she joined the volunteer medical battalion Hospitallers and became a combat medic to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.

“Cheka,” the callsign she chose at the start of the war, worked extensively on rotations in the most dangerous hotspots. In her role as a combat medic and crew commander,she combined high standards and professionalism with deep empathy.

From the first days of the full-scale invasion, many people close to Iryna were killed. Preserving the memory of the fallen became one of the central focuses of her work as a public official. She attended every possible event dedicated to memorialisation, used her management experience to speak about the importance of remembrance, and worked on shaping a national memory policy strategy. She planned to dedicate her master’s thesis at the Kyiv School of Economics to this subject.

Iryna “Cheka” Tsybukh”, was killed while carrying out a combat mission on  the Kharkiv front  in May 2024. She was posthumously awarded Ukraine’s highest honour for service to the nation — Hero of Ukraine. In her honour, friends and family also established the ChekaFEST festival, which took place for the first time on her birthday, 1 June, in Shevchenkivskyi Hai in Lviv. UAH 2.6 million raised through charitable donations were transferred to Iryna’s brothers- and sisters-in-arms to upgrade medical equipment for the Hospitallers, who continue to save lives. Her mission of honouring the memory of fallen heroes is now carried forward by the civil society organisation Vshanui (“Honour”).

Core values:

• Lifelong learning
• A deep knowledge of history
• Honouring the fallen
• Love
• Reading

Yar Batog was killed on 10 July 2024 in the settlement of New York, Donetsk region, just five days before his 27th birthday. In his short life, he accomplished a remarkable amount: he became a military commander, headed the KSE StratBase Centre, contributed to the integration of Ukraine’s and Europe’s energy systems, and countered disinformation as a fact-checker.

If not for russia, Yar could have been living and studying in another New York at that time — in the United States of America. In 2022, he was admitted to master’s programmes at two prestigious U.S. universities — Columbia University and Georgetown University — and was due to begin his studies at one of them. Yar sincerely believed in a better future for Ukraine and in the fact that its foundation lies in high-quality education.

“A person with a strong inner core who knows exactly what he wants in life,” — is how his friends describe Yar. They also recall that many people looked up to him. “Even now, when making important decisions, I ask myself: ‘What would Batog do?’ And the answer becomes obvious immediately,” one of his friends shares.

Bright, sincere, and deeply humane, Yar had an excellent sense of humour. And with him around, there was never fear. “Sometimes he didn’t even need to say anything — just Yar’s presence gave courage. Now we have to learn to cultivate this within ourselves: not to be afraid to do what we believe is right. Yar was afraid of nothing,” recalls his friend Alina.

Yar Batog was born in the town of Sosnytsia in the Chernihiv region. He graduated from the local gymnasium with a gold medal and from the Faculty of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with honours. As an exchange student, he studied political science at the University of Granada in Spain.

While still a student, Yar began working as a fact-checker for the VoxCheck project, where he exposed fakes and disinformation by Ukrainian politicians. Before the full-scale invasion, he also worked as a lead consultant in the International Cooperation Department of Ukrenergo (NPC Ukrenergo) and made  significant contributions to the integration of Ukraine’s and Europe’s energy systems.

From 2019 to 2022, Yar headed the KSE StratBase Centre at the Kyiv School of Economics, which, in cooperation with the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, analysed russia’s foreign policy and Ukraine–russia relations. Those who knew Yar well were always amazed by his energy and how he managed to fit so much into a single day — studying, reading extensively, working, meeting friends, and staying physically active.

In addition, Yar travelled extensively across Ukraine and the world, spoke English and Spanish fluently, and was known for his captivating stories about his journeys in Colombia and Africa. Friends and colleagues also recall his remarkable ability to connect with anyone and to maintain warm relationships over many years. “He had friends from kindergarten, school, and university. And at every job, he made new friends — not just casual acquaintances, but people he truly spent time with. When he came to Kyiv from the front, his schedule was tightly packed because he wanted to see everyone,” says his friend Oleksii.

In 2022, following the full-scale invasion, Yar Batog postponed his studies in the United States. Despite having an exemption, he made the decision to self-mobilise. “There is nothing more important than this war. My place right now is in the army, and all my projects and plans are on hold. After the war, I will continue where I left off,” he explained to his friends.

Yar fought on the eastern front and, over two years of war, became a reconnaissance unit commander. His brothers-in-arms say that despite his young age, he was an authority figure for them: brave, highly trained, and deeply committed to mastering the art of warfare.

In 2022, Yar received a commendation for conscientious service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In 2023, he was awarded the Commander-in-Chief’s honorary badge “Golden Cross” and the badge “War Veteran — Combatant”. In 2024, he was awarded the Order “For Courage”, Third Class.

Yar Batog aspired to take part in reforming the Ukrainian Armed Forces and planned to complete officer training, but did not have the chance. He dreamed of a strong, independent Ukraine and fought for its future to the very end, leaving behind a bright memory and inspiration for those who will continue his path.

Core values:

• To work and to remain human
• To be useful to society and the country
• To be just
• Lifelong learning
• Fidelity to oneself and one’s principles