Dec. 6, 2025, 6:37 p.m.
(Serhiy Sternenko. SCREEN SHOT: "Straight Red"/youtube)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded the founder of the Sternenko Community Charitable Foundation Serhiy Sternenko with the Golden Heart award.
The Presidential Office published the relevant decree.
The award was also given to: Pavlo Matviyets (posthumously), a volunteer of the NGO "Strong Because Free" from Kherson, and Khrystyna Dmytrychenko, a volunteer of the NGO Rebel Volunteers from Mykolaiv.
In total, 45 volunteers received the award in 2025. The Presidential Award "Golden Heart" was established by the Decree of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy on December 5, 2022. On December 9, 2022, 76 people were awarded the decoration for the first time. On September 4, 2023, 6 foreign citizens were awarded the decoration, 2 of them posthumously. On December 5, 2023, 40 volunteers and representatives of charitable organizations were awarded the decoration, one of them posthumously.
The Golden Heart Award of the President of Ukraine is a state award of Ukraine, a distinction of the President of Ukraine established to recognize the significant contribution of volunteers to the provision of volunteer assistance and the development of the volunteer movement, in particular during the implementation of measures to ensure the defense of Ukraine, protect the security of the population and the interests of the state in connection with the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and overcome its consequences.
On May 1, 2025, an armed attack was committed against Serhiy Sternenko, as a result of which he was injured. The Odesa activist was also attacked on May 24, 2018. One of the attackers received a fatal knife wound to the abdomen, and Serhiy Sternenko was hospitalized. In December 2023, the Primorskyi Court of Odesa closed the case of the attack on activist Serhii Sternenko, which ended in the death of one of the attackers, noting that prosecutors had not proven the activist's guilt in the murder.
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