Dmytro Overchuk was born in 1992 in the village of Shkariv, Hoshcha Raion. Having finished Horbakiv Comprehensive School, he entered Kvasyliv Technical Vocational Lyceum to obtain the qualification of a fitter repairing vehicles. On October 18, 2011, Dmytro was called up for compulsory military service into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine where he continued serving on the contract basis. After that, he underwent a training program Mechanic-Driver of the Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) in the subdivision of a Military Base A-1048. His permanent place of service was the 3d Unit of the First Platoon in the 30th Brigade in Novohrad-Volynskyi, Zhytomyr Oblast.
On March 8, 2014, the 30th Brigade was located in the south of Ukraine near the village of Chaplynka that borders with the mainland of Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula. Then, there was a new place of dislocation – the Arabat Spit, and then – Skadovsk and Berdiansk.
Dmytro was killed in the summer of 2014. He was buried in the village of Shkariv, Hoshcha Raion.
According to the Presidential Executive Order #270/2015 on May 15, 2015, Dmytro was posthumously decorated with the Third Class Order For Bravery “for personal courage and high professionalism demonstrated in the protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, loyalty to the military oath”.
Publications about Overchuk D.
For Overchuk’s family from Shkariv, 27th of July was a really unfortunate day. That was the day they last heard the voice of their son Dmytro. Observing the conditions of secrecy, he did not inform about the place of dislocation of his 30th Novograd-Volyn brigade.
“Mom, I can’t tell you where we are,” he said. “But don’t worry. I am well.”
During the last months they lived waiting for the call from each other. Conversations were always very short, without unnecessary questions and answers. He is alive, healthy, not hungry. For the mother it was enough to hear a few words, spoken by her native blood. To hear from somewhere out there, far away from home where almost behind every bush is a vile and insidious lurking death. The next day Dmytro didn’t call. Nor he did not answer his mother’s calls. “The subscriber is out of reach,” coldly and monotonously repeated every time someone else’s voice. Dmytro’s phone is still out of reach, meanwhile, his family never stopped hoping that he will certainly return to his native threshold. Perhaps a day, perhaps a month or maybe late, late in autumn…
In 2008 after leaving Horbakivska secondary school, Dmytro Overchuk went to learn the profession of a locksmith for car repairs in Kvasyliv vocational school. On October 18, 2011, he was drafted into the army. Young man weighed the opportunities and prospects of contract service and signed the agreement on service under the contract. Then there were three months of training on the training program “Mechanic – driver of infantry fighting vehicle” in the subdivision of the military unit A-1048 and moving to a permanent place of service in the 30th brigade, which was stationed in Novohrad-Volynskyi. Here he spent almost two and a half years. The first month of spring 2014 radically changed the lives of soldiers of the 30th brigade. On March 8, the brigade was already in the South of the country, near the village of Chaplynka on the border of the mainland of Ukraine with the Peninsula of Crimea. Subsequently, there was a new redeployment. The soldiers were transferred to the Arabat Spit. And then they were in Skadovsk and Berdiansk. On 28 July the column of the 1st battalion task force was directed to Savur-mohyla – strategic height. The head of the column was driving the BMP, at the wheel which sat Dmitry Overchuk. Next to him was a gun layer Serhii Lebedynskyi from Bereznivskyi raion. In an instant, a powerful explosion almost tore the car off the ground: the BMP hit a high-explosive mine. The boys, who were sitting on the armor, scattered in different directions. Those who were inside the BMP fell into the infernal captivity of fire. No sooner had the soldiers came to themself, from the Russian border the column was hit with reactive “Grad” (BM-21). After that soldiers and equipment were taken under the fire from grenade launchers and machine guns. Sergei Lebedinsky remembers how under the lead rain he was helped out of the burning vehicle. He remembers someone yelling that there still was Dima. He only heard all of this, as the flames burned his face. Dmitry’s parents never stopped looking for his son and turning in every possible instance they firmly believed that he was alive.
“It was the second fight with participation of the 30th Novohrad-Volynskyi brigade,” – tells Oksana Overchuk. “The first took place three days before, on July 25. Dmytro didn’t want to tell me anything about it. He didn’t want me to worry. He took care of my quiescence. Later his girlfriend Yana told me about everything. They planned to get married in spring. Yana also does not believe that Dima may not be among the living.
Meanwhile, the Main Directorate of Ukrainian Military Law-Enforcement Service has sent the response to Oksana Overchuk, in which was said: “On behalf of the Minister of Defence of Ukraine was considered the appeal of the Deputy of the people’s Deputy of Ukraine Blahodyr Yu.A. to promote the investigation of your son Overchuk Dmitry Ruslanovich, who went missing during a battle near the village of Stepanivka, Donetska oblast. By results of consideration we report that according to information provided by the Military medical Department of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine at this time, your son Overchuk D.R is not among the dead. At the same time, according to command of military unit 2731, the body of the lost soldier Overchuk D.R is in Zaporizhzhya Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination. The final identification of the body of the deceased soldier requires DNA examination. Oksana Overchuk took an intense three-day trip of to Zaporizhzhia in order to take biological samples for DNA examination and it turned into an even longer waiting for the result. DNA didn’t comfort the family: the convergence is 98.8%. But even this result does not deprive her belief that her son is alive, that it was just a mistake as that one which happened a few weeks ago. Into the Overchuk’s house came a woman in mourning attire. It was the mother of gunner Ivan Tymoshchuk who was killed on the ill-fated day in July 28 during the shelling of the column.
In the coffin where were the remains of Ivan was also the letter contained the names of two more soldiers – Dmytro Overchuk and Oleksii Korobenkov. The woman came to visit the grave of her son’s sworn brother. Her premature visit was a difficult ordeal for Dmytro’s family. But they began to look for the son even more vigorously. Barely holding back tears Oksana Overchuk shows a copybook that served as her notebook with rescue phone numbers. Every day she asks God to hear someone telling “Your son is alive.”
Iryna Povar
- S Was made the number of the coffin with the remains of Dmitry Overchuk. On June 7, 2014 was only 22 years old. He dreamed to work, to create a family and to become a reliable support for his parents and younger brother. His body was taken from a distant 3aporizhzhia to a small motherland in Shkariv. Eternal memory!
