HE STORMED SAVUR MOHYLA HILL AND RAIDED IN THE REAR OF RUSSIAN OCCUPATION TROOPS IN THE DONBASS.
A new heroic milestone began in the biography of Leonid Herasymchuk with the onset of hostilities in the east of Ukraine. In the summer of 2014, he was sent to the ATO zone as a member of mine clearance group, where he had to taste a bitter cup of war. At that time the army was only learning to fight. A group of Dubno sappers, including Leonid Herasymchuk, was attached to the airborne assault brigade and together they went through the flash points of the war. Leonid participated in the hottest battles. He stormed Savur Mohyla hill and raided in the rear of Russian occupation troops in the Donbass. Later a movie about this legendary raid in the enemy’s rear was filmed. While the raid, Leonid was seriously injured in the neck near the suburbs of Stepanivka and Miusinsk, where bitter hostilities were held. Physicians did not get the splinter from the neck. All his further service Leonid served with this deadly debris.
It is not necessary to explain in detail that such injuries do not improve health, and finally the war and the wound had made themselves felt through the years. Leonid Herasymchuk returned to the road-bridge service after treatment. In the permanent staff of the team he went to Polissia, where he built more than one bridge together with his buddies. That innate warrior did not want to be at the rear.
Major Elistratov told journalist of weekly newspapper “Dzerkalo Plius” about heroism of Leonid:
– Sergeant Leonid Herasymchuk went to the ATO zone at his own will as part of military engineering unit, which built bailey bridges. When contract enlisted soldiers were allowed to free themselves from treaty obligations, they began to flee from the army as the rats from the sinking ship. There were not enough people in the army, and Leonid realized this fact and it became the reason of his agreement to go to war. Although he could have not gone as he had already fulfilled his mission. He was worth knowing about. The work just “melted” in his hands.
HE COULD DO EVERYTHING, BOTH SERVING AND FIGHTING.
He could do whatever he wanted with his own hands, he was really a versatile person. He had a lot of hobbies like fishing and hunting. In the ATO zone, Sergeant Herasymchuk served as the commander of the sawmill department of the engineer battalion. It can be seemed building of bridges is not to fighting. Not everything is as it seems. They were also doomed to death like fighters of the assault brigade.When paratroopers conquest a bridgehead on a hostile shore, the bridge builders should build the bridge as soon as possible to drive the main forces and equipment. through the water obstacle. Leonid served in such kind of unit. He was a good friend and he has greate reputation among his sworn brothers. If you could ask, everybody would agree that he was literate and sincere person. He had golden hands and could cope with everything. He was a man of light and an exemplary warrior. Leonid was an example of a new Ukrainian sergeant. He could command a division and he would be able to command a hundred warriors. The army is based on such people, but death takes the best.
On June 28, Leonid Herasymchuk died in the ATO zone. Our unit lost a brave warrior, a competent specialist and a wonderful combat friend, about whom could be said :” I would go to the intelligence with such person”. He seemed to have feeling that he would not see his relatives,that is why he desired to meet with them. How did he die? What was the cause of death?
– I have not had official conclusions from the main department, thus I may not tell the official version. The fact of Sergeant Herasymchuk’s death is being investigated, in the same time the official conclusion about its causes is absent. It is said that the cause of his death was a heart attack, is it true?
– So. I am also keen of such unofficial information, but as military officer and official I cannot assert it officially until I receive the relevant documents. Unfortunately, the war does not go unnoticed to those who serves and fights not for fear, but for conscience. And Leonid Herasymchuk served on conscience. He could not do otherwise.
My deepest condolences to relatives and friends of Leonid Danylovych. During the obsequies Deputy Mayor Ruslan Mosiichuk came to the journalist and say,” Do you remember the words of a soldier you published after the last trip of the Dubno volunteers to the ATO zone? He said ‘This war has already irked me. I want to go home, to my children’. Leonid Herasymchuk told us that.” He seemed to have feeling that he would not see his relatives; that is why he desired to meet with them. It is far not everything we told about the fighting path of a worthy man and defender of Ukraine Leonid Danylovych Herasymchuk. And even from everything written above, we can feel the great and irretrievable loss of relatives and friends, sworn brothers, military unit and the whole Dubno district. Eternal Memory for the deceased soldier Leonid Herasymchuk!