Dmytro V. Kozachonok was born on October 31, 1994, in the village of Zastenky, Dubrovno Raion, Vitebsk Oblast of the Republic of Belarus. Later the family moved to the village of Kurozvany where he attended a local school which he finished in 2010.
Dmytro was drafted into the army under a contract in August 2013. After 3 months training, he got into the ATO Zone. He was a tank company chief mechanic-driver of the 30th Separate Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Novohrad-Volynskyi).
Dima and his friends spent the spring and half of the summer of the year 2014 at the checkpoints while guarding the borders of the ATO Zone.
Dmytro V. Kozachonok perished on May 7, 2015, as a result of mortar shelling of brigade number 30 emplacements on the lines between the towns of Horlivka and Artemivsk (Donetsk Oblast) by Russian fighters.
The hero was buried in the village of Kurozvany, Hoshcha Raion.
According to the Presidential Executive Order No 553/2015 on September 22, 2015 “for courage, selflessness and high professionalism which was demonstrated during the defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, fidelity to the oath of enlistment”, Dmytro was posthumously awarded a Third Class Order “For Bravery”.
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The fallen Hero will be buried on May 10
Today the body of the fallen hero Dmytro Kozachonok will return to the native village.
He served in the tank company of the military base A0409. And on May 7, in the village of Luhans’ke of the Artemivskyi district, which is found in the Donetsk region, he died during mortar shelling.
Tomorrow, on May 10, at 12 o’clock a farewell with the Hero will take place in his native village of Kurozvany, which is in Hoshchanskyi district. At 15 o’clock – a burial at the village cemetery.
The head of the district state administration Yuriy Kovalchuk expresses sincere condolences to the family, friends and fellow soldiers of the deceased.
We believe that his soul has found a shelter in Heaven because he died in the fight for a holy cause – the independence of the native land. Everyone who has laid the life for the freedom and the unity of Ukraine will forever remain in the memory of fellow countrymen as a Hero, the faithful son of his state, who was defending our future from the enemy …
Glory to Ukraine! Eternal glory to her Heroes!
In Rivne region a memorial plaque and a monument to the fallen in the zone of ATO were unveiled
On September 20, in the village of Kurozvany, which is in Hoshchanskyi district, on the school building, was unveiled a memorial plaque to Dmytro Kozachonok who died in ATO. Also, in the village, a monument to the fighters who fell for the freedom of independent Ukraine, namely fellow countrymen who died in ATO Oleg Tarasyuk and Dmytro Kozachonok, was sanctified. The newly erected monument in the centre of the village complements the memorial to the fallen fellow village residents during the Second World War. Gathered at the event were the relatives of the deceased, friends, fellow soldiers and the representatives of the authorities. This is reported by the site of the Rivne Regional State Administration.
The head of the disctrict state administration Yuriy Kovalchuk stressed that we were able to calmly live every day and carry out everyday affairs, have fun and enjoy our lives thanks to our troops who protected us and our state:
– The guys will live as long as we remember about them. May they rest in peace…, – Yuriy Kovalchuk said.
A minute of silence was held to honor the troops who died in the East of Ukraine.
For reference. Dmytro Kozachonok joined the army on a contractual basis in August of 2013. He was a senior mechanic, a tank driver. Dmytro and his friends spent the spring and half of the summer of 2014 at checkpoints, guarding the boundaries of the zone of ATO. In July, their unit took part in military actions for the first time. Dmytro was present at all the toughest spots. He was pushing out the enemy from Savur Mohyla that was captured by them. It is a tank crew, which included Dmytro as a senior driver-mechanic, that knocked down a Russian tricolor from a flagpole and under the downpour of hostile bullets tied a Ukrainian flag to it. He was killed on May 7 of this year as a result of mortar shelling near Artemivsk.
During the military actions in the East of Ukraine Oleg Tarasyuk was in charge of the Rivne intelligence unit of the Volunteer Corps “The Right Sector”. Oleg, a successful entrepreneur, a responsible and loving husband, a father of two adult children, a grandfather of two little granddaughters, will forever remain in the memory of fellow village residents also as an open, sincere and very positive person. He was killed on August 10, 2014 in the battle for the liberation of the city of Ilovaisk. In June of this year, a memorial plaque to the volunteer Oleg Tarasyuk was unveiled on the Kurozvany school building.
Daryna Kyrychok
He will live forever in the hearts of fellow village residents
In the fall of 2014, Dmytro Kozachonok, unexpectedly for all, came on leave from the zone of ATO to a native village of Kurozvany. It was just before his birthday.
When teachers and students of a local school, in which Dmytro had studied, learned about his arrival, they decided to invite their former student, and now a participant of the military actions in the East of Ukraine, to the meeting. Everyone looked forward to this event and decorated the school in a festive way. The students came to the school in embroidered shirts, and the pathway where the meeting was taking place was covered with the petals of flowers.
Dmytro did not come to the meeting alone. He was accompanied by his mother, godmother, who came from Zhytyn specifically for the event, and stepfather Volodymyr who replaced a father for the young man. Dmytro came to the school with flowers for the class supervisor Ruslana Mykhailivna Panchuk and with sweets for the teaching staff.
The children met him with a joyful applause, prepared a small concert. Songs, poems, memories were presented. Those present viewed the photos of Dmytro’s life and school. Schoolchildren asked a lot of questions, in particular, why the young man decided to take such a step – to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine on a contractual basis and how he got into the zone of ATO, to which they heard Dmytro’s answer: “Who, if not us?” Subsequently, Dmytro told the students about his fellow soldiers who stood at the checkpoints, protected the boundaries of the zone of ATO. He also told about his military unit, participation in the first battle, how they were pushing out the enemy from Savur-Mohyla.
Students listened in awe about the weekdays of the tank crew, about the shelling from the occupied territory, about the courage of fellow soldiers and the pain of the loss of combat friends and the minutes of rest.
– In summer when it was warm, – the young man recalled, – we slept under the tank. The local population helped us a lot.
Dmytro spoke with special warmth about an old grandfather who brought them food and how tasty this food was and smelled like a native home. The children’s hearts stood still when the talk focused on the encirclement near Ilovaisk, how the fighters of the 30th mechanized brigade together with other combat units were breaking through the outer ring of “the boiler”. It was for this that they were given a ten-day leave to come home.
The class supervisor Ruslana Mykhailivna was proud of her student. In her speech, she said “Dmytro has always been an active, cheerful and reliable friend. One could always rely on him.”
Students handed Dmytro and his crew the gifts, which they made themselves. The meeting ended, but the stories, told by young Dmytro, forever remained in the memory of schoolchildren, they were re-told by fellow village residents for a long while.
The life of the hero broke off early, but he will live forever in the hearts of fellow village residents as such a courageous and brave man that they saw during the meeting.
Mother of the fallen son-hero received the Order “For Courage” of the III degree
On October 23, in the assembly hall of the district state administration, the ceremony of awarding the Order “For Coura
ge” of the III degree (posthumously) to the mother of the hero Dmytro Valeriiovych Kozachonok, a resident of the village of Kurozvany, who was killed on May 7, 2015 as a result of mortar shelling near Artemivsk, took place.
The head of the district state administration Yuriy Kovalchuk, while giving the order to Nadiya Poliukhovych, the mother of the deceased, expressed gratitude for raising the son-hero, the courageous defender of Ukraine and sincerely sympathized for the heavy loss. At the gathering were present close ones of the deceased, directors of companies and organizations of the district, representatives of the media.
The participants of the gathering honored the memory of the fallen Hero Dmytro Kozachonok by a minute of silence.
The award was established for courage, dedication and a high level of professionalism, revealed in the protection of the state sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine, loyalty to a military oath.
Rivne police returned the stolen order of the son, who died heroically, to the mother
On September 25, a 44-year old resident of the village of Kurozvany of the Hoshchanskyi district turned to the police. The woman reported that from her house the son’s order “For courage” of the III degree, which had been awarded to him posthumously, was stolen. For the police it became a matter of honor to track down a thief and the military award.
For her it is not only a photo in a tragic book. And it is not just an order … that’s all that is left to her from the son Dmytro after his death. A 20-year-old man went to the front line and in the spring of 2015 did not return. He becomes alive only here – on the pages of his notebooks with memories and dreams… about the future; the future that was taken from him by the war!
“In this notebook, Dima writes about what he was thinking, what he was planning,” – Mrs. Nadiya says, the mother of the fallen soldier. – He wrote everything about the army. He was recording how to get to different locations, and I’m looking through. I re-read them every day 
… He had been saying so from an early age – I will become a military man.”
Dmytro Kozachonok was a tankman of the 30th separate mechanized brigade of Novohrad-Volynskyi. He fought at Ilovaisk, got out from Debaltseve. On May 7, 2015, he was killed as a result of mortar shelling by Russian militants of the brigade’s positions on the defensive frontiers near the village of Luhanske of the Donetsk region. At home he left behind three sisters and the mother. She remembers THAT day in minutes: how she had spoken with the son, and as it turned out later, – for the last time.
“At 13.10 I left the village and at 14.07 I received a phone call that he had died. When that mortar shelling had begun, he saved two tanks, but he … jumped out of it and they say that he was thrown by a blast wave over six meters from the tank, and the lungs got torn out.”
When he was communicating with a sister, Dmytro asked her, “If something happens to me, tell mom not to cry because I chose my way myself.”
However, this was the first indescribable pain, and the second one overtook when the grief-stricken mother was robbed of the son’s order “For courage” of the III degree, which was awarded to him posthumously.
“I say that it would be better if they stole money, which has no value. But the order is a part of the son and a memory about him.”
The affair of theft was immediately taken upon by the law enforcement of Hoshcha police department. Many of them also served in the east of the state.
“Until you solve the crime – nobody will go home,” – the head of the regional police Sergii Kniaziev ordered.
The director of the criminal police sector of Hoshcha police department, Ruslan Mizyuk, who took part in the military actions in the east of Ukraine, served in Volnovakha, only added –to solve the crime was essential to the police. The police did not have to search for an offender for a long time. As it turned out, “sticky” hands belonged to a 17-year-old girlfriend of the sister of the deceased.
“During the primary investigation it was found that the home had not been broken into, and therefore the theft could have been committed by someone from the extended family or someone present in the dwelling at that time. That person turned out to be a minor resident of Tuchyn. The girl explained that on Sunday, when the family had been off to Rivne on personal business, she accidentally took that order, put it in the pocket, but wanted to return it the next day.”
Instead, Nadiia Ivanivna thanks the police for the returned order, and together with it, peace. The woman forgave the young thief:
“Since I am a mother myself and raised four children by myself, I forgive her.”
Communication department of Rivne regional police
On September 20, in Hoshchanskyi district, in the village of Kurozvany, a memorial plaque to Dmytro Kozachonok, who was killed in ATO, was unveiled on the school building. Also, in the village, a monument to the fighters who fell for the freedom of independent Ukraine, namely fellow countrymen who died in ATO Oleg Tarasyuk and Dmytro Kozachonok, was sanctified.