Presentation of the Book “ Heroes of Unconquered Ukraine. The Year 2022”

The presentation of the book “Heroes of Unconquered Ukraine: Heroes of Ukraine, Knights of Orders of Three Classes Since the Beginning of the Full-Scale Russian Invasion of Ukraine. The Year 2022”, which took place earlier this week, once again confirmed: in our society, the Russian-Ukrainian war is perceived as the most important challenge for Ukraine, which will remain one not only until complete victory over the enemy. The war and the defenders of our Motherland will forever remain in our memory, because in this way we had to defend our independence, while showing courage in the fight against Russian invaders, and the best of the Ukrainian defenders were awarded the high title — Hero of Ukraine. This was stated in the speeches of Olexandr Bielov, President of the “Borysfen Intel” Centre, Yurii Levchenko, President of the Foundation of Veterans of Military Intelligence of Ukraine, Oleh Bereziuk, Director of the Institute of Global Politics and other persons invited to this event.

A well-known TV journalist in Ukraine and host of popular TV programs Svitlana Lieontieva was a moderator. It was she who told the audience about the book, about those whose portraits are placed there, as well as about the considerable amount of work that both the author and his colleagues had to do in preparing the book for publication. The speeches of those present were accompanied by specially prepared slides on the screen. These were portraits of the Heroes, their biographical data, photographs about handing the awards, as well as summarized statistics of the awarded. For example , the youngest Heroes were 19-year-old soldier Oleksandr Harbuz, awarded posthumously, and 20-year-old soldier Roman Hlomba, who shot down several enemy Su-25 aircrafts from MANPADS. 61-year-old chief of the military hospital, Colonel Oleksandr Sliesarenko, and Lieutenant Colonel Oleksandr Yakovenko, commander of the separate assault battalion “AIDAR”, today are considered the oldest heroes of Ukraine and continue to perform their duties.

By the way, those present had the opportunity to get acquainted with the statistics on the awardees, based on the collected data. And although the author of the book did not set himself such a task, but at the end of the work on the materials, it also attracts attention. So, there is statistics about the age groups of awardees, about those awarded by months, by military specialties, by positions or military ranks. In general, from the beginning of the Russian invasion in February until the end of 2022, 201 warriors were awarded the title Hero of Ukraine by Presidential Decrees, 93 of them — posthumously.

President of the “Borysfen Intel” Centre Olexandr Bielov in his speech considered it appropriate to remind about the origin of our current military insignia. Since the book contains complete information about the recipients of other high awards, such as the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi and “For Courage”, the Cross of Military Merit, etc., Olexandr Fedorovych briefly told the audience about ancient Ukrainian awards, which can be considered the historical basis of the today’s. This can also be considered an indicative response to those who today try to deny the history of Ukraine and even more…

President of the Foundation of Veterans of Military Intelligence of Ukraine Yurii Levchenko spoke on examples of our servicemen’s heroic deeds on the battlefield. He, as a former military leader, is well aware of how a warrior feels during a battle, especially when an order is given to perform a very difficult combat mission. Therefore, he paid tribute to the heroism of soldiers, officers, and the top military leaders, who are also mentioned in the book. As for those, the book contain information about the award of the Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi — the Cross of Military Merit. And the first to receive the award in 2022 was the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Director of the Institute of Global Politics Oleh Bereziuk in his speech thanked the author of the book, pointing out his extraordinary initiative, and drawing attention to the fact that among the awarded citizens of Ukraine there are personalities of other nationalities. This is extremely important, because such facts demonstrate that Ukraine is a homeland for each of us who values a Ukrainian passport.

It is clear that the publication of this book does not mean that the work is over. After all, in the current 2023, in defending our Motherland, servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who distinguished themselves — Heroes of Ukraine included — showed heroism again. I really want them to be able to hold this book in their hands and feel the sincere respect of our citizens.

Oleh Makhno