Vitalii Volodymyrovych Skakun ( ukr, Віталій Володимирович Скакун; 19 August 1996 – 24 February 2022) was a Ukrainian marine

combat engineer A combat engineer (also called pioneer or sapper) is a type of soldier who performs military engineering tasks in support of land forces combat operations. Combat engineers perform a variety of military engineering, tunnel and mine warfare tas ...

who was posthumously awarded the Order of the Gold Star. He sacrificed his life in the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

while blowing up a bridge in

Henichesk Henichesk ( uk, Гені́чеськ, Heniches’k, ; rus, links=on, Гени́ческ, r=Genichesk, p=ɡʲɪˈnʲit͡ɕɪsk) is a port city along the Sea of Azov in the Kherson Oblast of southern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre ...

to slow the advance of Russian troops during the Kherson offensive.

Early life

Skakun was born on 19 August 1996 in

Berezhany Berezhany ( uk, Бережани, ; pl, Brzeżany; yi, ברעזשאַן, Brezhan; he, בּז'יז'אני/בּז'ז'ני ''Bzhezhani''/''Bzhizhani'') is a city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It lies about fr ...

in western Ukraine. He attended the No. 3 school in Berezhany, where his mother was a member of the teaching staff. Later in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

, Skakun graduated from Higher Vocational School No. 20, where he studied to be a welder. He graduated from

Lviv Polytechnic Lviv Polytechnic National University ( ua, Націона́льний університе́т «Льві́вська політе́хніка») is the largest scientific university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its foundation in 1816, it has bee ...

. In 2018, he lived for six months in

Leszno Leszno (german: Lissa, 1800–1918 ''Lissa in Posen'') is a historic city in western Poland, within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province with an estimated population of 62,200, as of 2021. Previously, it ...

, where he worked as a

construction worker A construction worker is a worker employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure. Definition By some definitions, workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers; they may be sk ...

Military career

During the

, Skakun's battalion was deployed to protect the town of

, located near the

Isthmus of Perekop The Isthmus of Perekop, literally Isthmus of the Trench ( uk, Перекопський перешийок; transliteration: ''Perekops'kyy pereshyyok''; russian: Перекопский перешеек; transliteration: ''Perekopskiy peresheek ...

. As a Russian armored column approached the position, Ukrainian forces decided to destroy the Henichesk bridge, in order to impede the advance of Russian troops travelling northward from

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

during the Kherson offensive. Skakun, a

, volunteered to place mines on the bridge. On 24 February 2022, after placing the explosives, Skakun did not have enough time to withdraw from the bridge and, after communicating his intentions to his fellow soldiers, detonated the mines, killing himself and destroying the bridge. His actions slowed the Russian advance, allowing his battalion time to regroup.

Legacy

On 26 February 2022, Skakun was posthumously awarded the Order of the Gold Star, the military version of the title of

Hero of Ukraine Hero of Ukraine (HOU; uk, Герой України, ''Heroi Ukrainy'') is the highest national title that can be conferred upon an individual citizen by the President of Ukraine. The title was created in 1998 by President Leonid Kuchma and as ...

, by Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...

. On 28 February 2022, the Czech representative of one of Prague's city districts, Libor Bezděk, proposed to rename a bridge in Korunovační Street, which is the address of the Russian embassy, to Vitalij Skakun bridge. The proposal was accepted by the district and was forwarded to Prague City Council. On 1 March 2022, the city council of

awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of Berezhany" to Skakun. On 7 March 2022, he was granted honorary citizenship of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skakun, Vitalii 1996 births 2022 deaths Lviv Polytechnic alumni People from Berezhany Recipients of the Order of Gold Star (Ukraine) Southern Ukraine campaign 21st-century Ukrainian engineers Ukrainian military engineers Ukrainian military personnel killed in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine