Zelensky posthumously awards Kherson environmentalist who died in Russian attack

On the occasion of the Day of Unity of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded the Order of Merit III degree to two employees of Kherson utilities.

The President signed the decree on January 20.

Among the honorees is Volodymyr Yelkin, a driver at the Kherson Municipal Transport Service utility company.

In addition, the president posthumously awarded Volodymyr Shum, chief specialist of the ecology department of the Kherson City Council's communal services department.

Volodymyr Shum was killed on January 6 during an attack by an enemy drone that hit a shuttle bus. He was the last ecologist who continued to work in the Kherson community. Most of all, Volodymyr Ivanovych took care of trees. In a few days, he was to celebrate his 51st birthday.

Both employees were recognized for their significant contribution to the strengthening of Ukrainian statehood, their courage and dedication, and their selfless work for the benefit of the community in difficult conditions.

Recently, a volunteer from Kherson, Iryna Bayrachenko, was killed by a Russian drone. Her schoolgirl daughter Margarita was left without a mother.

On January 14, a 56-year-old nurse of a local outpatient clinic was killed in the suburb of Kherson, Antonivka, as a result of Russian shelling. The body of Svitlana Kharchenko, a nurse from the Kherson polyclinic, was found near the Antonovka Bridge. The woman spent her entire life helping people. Svitlana left the hospital to return home, but on the way she was attacked by a Russian drone. An eyewitness said that she was seriously injured and, despite trying to hold on, died on the spot. Her body was found the next morning near the bridge.

On January 8, Roman Matviychuk, the head of one of the neighborhood committees of Kherson's Korabelny district, was killed in Naddnipryanske by a Russian drone attack. The Russian military attacked a car with a drone, in which 71-year-old Roman Matviychuk was with the driver.

Ірина Глухова