Ivan Strykun was born on September 13, 1967, in the village of Novomalyn, Ostroh Raion, Rivne Oblast. He graduated from the local secondary school. After finishing school, Ivan served in the Soviet Army. He left the army as a Junior Sergeant. After demobilization Ivan went to work as a driver in the Iskra Collective Farm in the nearby village of Myhalkivtsi. There he got acquainted with his future wife Oksana and he got married in 1990. They had two children – a son Ivan and a daughter Olha.
Ivan was conscripted to the Armed Forces of Ukraine on 12 March 2015. At the beginning, Ivan held a military training at Rivne Training Range, on April 20, 2015, he was sent for military service to the Military Field Post Office V2830 as a senior driver (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast). From May 19, 2015, according to the Decree №118 on 19.05.2015, took part in the Anti-Terrorist Operation.
Ivan Strykun, a junior Sergeant and senior driver of the 93 Separate Mechanized Brigade died on June 29, 2015, on the way to the hospital in the town of Novohradivka, Donetsk Oblast.
The serviceman left a mother, a wife, and two children.
Ostroh district mourn over his son again
Last Thursday residents of the village Mykhalkivtsi greeted on knees their 48 years old fellow villiger junior sergeant Ivan Hryhorovych Strykun. Relentness death found this courageous man far in Donetsk region, where he as a true patriot, defended the territorial integrity of Ukraine in anti-terror operation. Unfortunately, he was the third from Ostroh district in the list of killed in anti-terrorist operation after Serhii Huliuk and Vladyslav Rylskyi.
So last weekend the whole Ostroh district was in a three-day mourning. The flags were suspended on the buildings, state enterprises, farms and organizations of the Ostroh district. Also concerts and sport competitions were cancelled these days. Relatives, friends, representatives of military units, district and local authorities came to pay last respects to the courageous patriot, loving son, loving husband, caring father, faithful friend, brother and just a kind person. Soldiers accompanied the junior sergeant and a senior driver of the 93th separate mechanized brigade Ivan Strykun with all military honours.
Ivan Hryhorovych was born on 13 August 1967 in Novomalyn, Ostroh district. After graduation from a local secondary school he served in the Soviet Army. After demobilization the junior sergeant did not look for happiness in the city, he went to work to the collective farm “Iskra”, where he found his beloved Oksana. In 1990 they married. They had a big, friendly family and raised two kind and hard-working children – son Ivan and daughter Olga. After the collective farm reorganization the lack of money and care about family forced Ivan to go to work abroad. The children grew up, studied, and father was building a new spacious home, dreamed of grandchildren…
On March 12, 2015 Ivan Grygorovych was called up for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He underwent military training at the Rivne proving ground. On April 20, 2015 he was sent to the military unit – field post office V2830 as a senior driver ( Dnipropetrovsk Region). Since May 19, 2015 according to the prescript №118 issued on 19 May , 2015 Ivan took part in anti-terrorist operation. The heart of a junior sergeant and a senior driver of the 93th separate mechanized brigade Ivan Strykun ceased to beat on 29 June 2015 on the way to the hospital in Novohradivka Donetsk region, although all the previous information referred to urban-type settlement Zhelanne in the same region.
Today it does not matter for disconsolate mother, wife and children what place is indicated in the document of their native person’s death, because no force will bring them a living son, husband and father.
The sounds of the funeral march shook that day usually quiet streets of Mikhalkivtsi. The infinite human stream went behind the coffin of adeceased to the local temple under the burning summer sun and after an hour’s funeral in it – to the rural cemetery, where Ivan Hryhorovych Strykun, the defender of Ukraine was buried. And although his life was interrupted not by a hostile bullet, but “death came as a result of a heart failure,”none of us could no longer know what the man had to overcome there, in the war and why his heart could not stand it. But one thing we know for sure, he went to that war consciously, with a firm belief in the fact that his children will live in peace, that his village will develop and prosper, and Ukraine will be a truly free, strong and independent state.