Maksym Liashuk was born on May 18, 1989, in the city of Lutsk. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to the village of Ostrozhets, Mlyniv Raion. After finishing the local school, a boy entered Lutsk Institute of Human Development of the University “Ukraine”. His major was Physical Rehabilitation.
After serving in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Maksym worked as a policeman of the Platoon No. 2 in the Special Rota of the Judicial Police “Hryphon” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. He was also an Assistant Security Officer of the Division of Quick Response “Sokol” of HUBOZ.
At the age of 22, Maksym finished his service in the police forces for health reasons. He worked as a teacher of physical education and the director of the regional tourism center in Mlyniv Center of Tourism.
Maksym was an active participant of Maidan in Kyiv. He was one of the first who joined the Battalion “Svitiaz” where he served as a platoon commander.
Maksym stayed alive after the Battle for Ilovaisk, but died on September 29, 2014, in the “green corridor”, where along with the voluntary battalions and military columns was leaving the place of the bloody battle. The deceased left a wife and a son.
According to the Presidential Executive Order № 213/2015 on April 9, 2015, “for personal courage and high professionalism, demonstrated in the defense of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, loyalty to the military oath”, Maksym Liashuk was posthumously awarded the Third Class Order “For Courage”.
Publications about Liashuk Maksym Volodymyrovych
“The last call from the “Ilovaiskyi Kotel”, – the father of the dead soldier of “Svitiaz”
He was a patriot since childhood
Maksym lived with a dignity, he was always guided by innate striving for justice. Unfortunately, his life was ended in 25 years. “He was a patriot since his childhood,” says his father Volodymyr Vasyliovych Liashuk. – And this feeling of patriotism, justice was not just raised in him, it was inherent in his life. ”
He studied at the 19th school of Lutsk, later – at Ostrozhets school, and then he went to serve in the army because of his own choice. He served in Kyiv (in a special squad) in internal troops. Before the army he joined Lutsk Institute of Human Development on the specialty “Physical Rehabilitation”. He graduated from the magistracy. At the same University. Maksym was engaged in sports, martial arts, he was active, focused, and always participated in various competitions during his life.
“He always brought everything to the end, what he was doing, and did not retreat from the goal,” Volodymyr Vasyliovych recalls. – He had such character: if you decide something, you will not retreat from what you have decided. ”
After army and training, Maksym chose to work in the police for himself, entered the police school in Sokyrychy, where he was recommended after a decent service. Then he worked as a policeman in the platoon of special forces of the judicial police “Grifon” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he was an assistant of the operative authorized department of the rapid reaction “Sokol” in UBOD UMVD. The comrades know him as a responsible, brave and determined worker who was a correct policeman and was guided in his actions with honor and conscience.
A serious accident changed his life
A difficult test was in a life of Maksym – an accident that did not occur through his fault, but caused difficult consequences for his health. For four days he was in a coma. When he came to himself, he began to do just everything to restore his physical condition as soon as possible. As a result of the accident, the right side of his body was deprived and he could not speak. However, he did not spare the forces, he engaged himself and gradually recovered. The knowledge about the rehabilitation became useful. One time he even tied the foot to the pedal of the bike and exerted a distance of up to 10 kilometers. He had a very strong and indestructible power of will, which helped him to withstand and overcome obstacles that others could not overcome.
Together with the pupils, they won the first place in Ukraine in a tourism competition
Maksym in the state of health unable to work in the police became a teacher of physical education after resuming his efforts. He started a new page with enthusiasm, so he was quickly noticed and offered a job in the tourism department in Mlyniv. He conducted tourist clubs in several schools. Children were very fond of their leader, and he also genuinely and enthusiastically engaged in new activities, he really loved and took care of his pupils.
They said that there was not such a teacher like him, who would work so energetically and enthusiastically with children. Maksym organized tourist trips for them, drove to the Carpathians and the Crimean mountains, before the annexation. Last year his team took the second place in the All-Ukrainian competition “Tracks of Heroes”. Then Maksym said that next year they would definitely win. That’s what happened. Last year, the team “Yarovo” (hence the callous of Maksym “Yar”) under his leadership gained the victory in the third category of difficulty campaign and became the best in Ukraine.
One of the first volunteers went to war
The Maidan began and Maksym began a new life. From the very beginning he warmly supported students, because he could not do in another way. He was an active Maidan and self-defense person, so he went to Maidan in Kiev.
“When the war began, I already heard from him such words I need it there, I have to be there “, – says Volodymyr Vasyliovych. – From the very beginning he was convinced of this, saying: “And what will I say to my son, he will grow up and ask why his country so small? What will I answer to this: where have you been at that time, my father, when it was divided? “And I could not deny him. People like Maksym can not be stopped. We knew that he would go to war and we could not do anything about it. Though we had some sort of hard feelings at the same time”.
Maksym was the commander of the platoon of the company of the patrol service of the special purpose “Svitiaz” and on August 13, along with his siblings, went to ATO zone. He was always on the front line, participated in battles and special operations. He really cared of his people and sometimes he even argued with the leaders, saying that his people would not be cannon fodder. One day when they were entrusted with a particularly difficult task, he went there on his own, because he did not want to risk his people.
The last call … from the “Ilovaiskyi Kotel”
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The main goal of the volunteer battalions under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including the Svitiaz battalion, was to clear the cities after their release,” said Volodymyr Vasyliovych. – Instead of that they, the real patriots, were put up with automatic machines on the front line. When they went for that operation in Ilovaisk, they thought they were going for a day or two. There they got into the environment without food, without enough weapons. When I talked to him fo the las time, Maksym was there, at Ilovaisk school, the whole Ukraine saw him on a video with a machine near the window. He told me: “For all the will of God, we are surrounded, there is no way out.” All those who were there were the real patriots …
Ten days they stayed in the environment. The guys stood to the last. The son told me that there was already one killed in his platoon and one wounded and they were not able to take them out. And he state that the country celebrated the parade at that time. I think the commander-in-chief, the same Poroshenko, for which I voted, is guilty of what happened, first of all. I will blame him until he answers, who is to blame for this tragedy. People were protesting, asking for help, surrounded in Ilovaisk. But all this was in a secret. Lysenko then spoke and said that reinforcement to our boys was gone, but it turned out to be a lie, nobody gave them any help and did not intend to give them. We believe that was a special trap designed to destroy patriots. The thing that really hurts mostly, for me as a parent, and for other parents of our fallen children, is that the tragedy could be averted.
Four months of searching … four months of hope …
“We had to look for our children for four months. Information about them skipped, but it seemed to be deliberately concealed. We, as the parents, at that time of still disappeared (dead) sons, gathered together and just were looking for some kind of hook, even some information. Later probably in the middle of October, I saw the lists in which my son was listed as being killed, and then somebody put a question mark near his name and wrote “captured”. And this word “captured”was lasting for several months.
But then the volunteers gave a picture of the personal belongings of each of them. When we saw the old copper icon of St. Nicholas, we understood that there could not belong to anyone else, only to Maksym… Then the same volunteers gave us the other information about the bodies of the dead people. As it turned out the bodies were examined in the morgue on the 1st of September, and there are the photos on which there is a date that confirms this. ”
The candle on the prayer went away …
“The months of searches were terrible,” Volodymyr Vasyliovych remembers. – We, parents, were hoping that our children were alive till the end … I wanted to believe in a miracle, but there was also a feeling of the parent … On the day when their column broke, I did not find a place for myself. In the evening I went to the garage to make myself busy. The sky was clear, but then the wind arose and the rain began.
We had two funerals. We also had a grandmother, and when her son was buried in Zaporizhia, she died that night.
And on the fortieth day he was in my dream. It was like we talked to each other about something, then Maksym sat on a bike and went forward…
There was another case … after Maksym had already been killed and we did not know about it, his mother went to a prayer service and lit a candle. And suddenly the candle went out …
That night, when we learned about his fate, Maksym was in a dream of a fellow villager and he said there: ” I am glad I am finally at home.” He really wanted to get home and now he is with us … ”
And on August 29, the same day when a tragedy near Ilovaisk happened, the son of Maxym, who was about ten and a half months old, made his first steps.
Heroes do not die!
“Now we help, as much as possible, to the fighters of the battalion” Svitiaz “, because they are there in the cold conditions, standing for our Ukraine,” says Volodymyr Liashuk. – We, the parents of the dead sons, have joined one trouble. On August 29, we all will be gathered in one temple to remind our sons. We want those who have set this trap for our children to be punished. After all, the destruction of patriots destroys our nation. No one at this time took responsibility for this. But this is not in vain. The people of light died. But they perished with honor, and with honor they lived a short, but decent life. ”
Thousands of people came to the last path of Maksym Liashuk. His death is an irreparable loss for everybody and nothing can justify it. But for relatives and loved ones, Maksym is alive and will always live, as well as for everyone who understands the price of Ukraine’s future.
“Immortality was destined for him forever”
Maksym Liashuk, a soldier of the special unit “World”, was accused of “Ravine” on the premises of the Ostrozhets educational complex, who died last year on August 29 during an exit from the Ilovais boiler. His relatives were looking for Maksym, whose last name was listed on the Missing List. Sleepless nights of parents, wife, brother. Hope left the cold December morning last year. Our fellow countryman’s body was identified and taken from Zaporizhzhia to Ostrozhets, where Hero will rest forever in a village cemetery …
Before entering the educational complex students with inflamed lamps, parents, wife, brother and son Maksym, fellow villagers, heads of institutions. The words of the glorious son of Ukraine were voiced by Ostrozhetsky village chairman Oleg Parkhome, educational complex director Volodymyr Kozliuk, chairman of the district administration Alla Cherniy: she was lowly worshiped by the parents of Maksym Liashuk for the upbringing of her courageous son, and in their face – to all the mothers of the knights of Ukraine, who defended homeland from subtle and insidious enemies at the cost of their own lives.
– Unfortunately, Alla Leonidivna noted, – today again we are conducting the last earthly road of Hero-fellow countryman, the” cyber “of Peter Politsiak from Borbin, who died at the Donetsk airport. This is another painful, ineffective wound for relatives, close warriors, for all of us.
People’s deputy of Ukraine Oleksandr Dekhtiarchuk visited and complained at a mournful event. Incidentally, it was he who initiated the installation of a memorial plaque for Hero of Ostrozhets, ordered and funded its production.
Students recited poetry. A sound song was heard. After the celebration, schoolchildren took the lamps to the grave of Maksym.
To honor the memory of the Hero arrived warriors from the company of special police “Svitiaz”, in particular the commander of the special unit Oleg Druchan, as well as relatives of other dead during ATO fighters “Svitiaz”.
The memorial plaque was opened on the day of the anniversary of the tragic events on EuroMaidan, whose active participant was Maksym. In a surprising coincidence, just a year ago, on the premises of the educational complex, a memorial plaque was opened to the school graduater Victor Raulinavichus who died heroically in the mountains of Afghanistan.
“The memory of the devoted soul that fell in the steppes”
Dedicated to the memory of Maksym Liashuk
The war… Cruel, bloody war. The war, in which the best sons of Ukraine are dying, among which is our colleague Maksym Liashuk.
Not everybody, who works in school, became relative and own. It happens that a teacher who has worked more than 20 years, has remained a stranger in the school team. However, there are still glorious teachers, who became close with the pupils, teachers, parents and school workers. And that one was in our nine-year school.
In January 2011 in Soviet secondary school of I-II degrees Maksym Volodymyrovych Liashuk started his pedagogical activity. From the first days he admired children with his travelling stories and taught them how organize active rest. During 2011-2014, the district newspaper “Gomin” repeatedly published publications about dedicated, brave, wise teacher, who conquered with his pupils the mountains of Carpathians, won in district and regional congresses of young tourists-ethnographers, led children in hiking to observe the homeland. “Our collective was proud and always will be proud that he was our teacher, our Maksym. Sincere, persistent, energetic, just, wise, tolerant, intelligent, kind, always ready to come to the rescue. That`s how he was remembered at the Soviet school…” that is how about Maksym – an educator and a man – speaks Tetiana Volodymyrivna Zinchuk – the headmaster.
“ And with what love, sincere sonlike feelings, – mentions Olha Mykytivna Bura, the Deputy Director of Educational Work, – Maksym was talking about his mom, with the pride – about father, in absentia acquainted us with his gentle future wife Olia. Not often we can meet such responsible, purposeful teachers. It was interesting pleasantly to work with Maksym”.
Ukrainians from generation to generation passed the best features of their character: freedom of love, aristocracy of spirit, disobedience to oppressors, ingenuity… Our Maksym was endowed with all these qualities”, – the teacher of English language Viktoriia Hnativna Yaroshevych states with the sadness.
Personally, I recall Maxym as a bright man, a faithful friend, a true colleague. Through his deeds, he awakened the desire to create something for the prosperity and development of the country, inspired each of us faith in a better future.
“ … And the memory will remain in our hearts about the devoted soul that has fallen in the steppes, about the brave heart, which became the wall in the battle for the homeland, for the native family”. Such words about the image of our Maxym picked our music teacher Alla Oleksiivna Dorosh.
Glory to you, Maxim, will be heard everywhere, and the memory of you will live forever. Heroes do not die!
Yelyzaveta Pahula The teacher of Soviet Secondary School
He is forever 25
To the anniversary of the death of Maksym Liashuk
The 29th of August is the year when the 25-year-old Maxym Volodymyrovych Liashuk, was killed near Ilovaisk – our unforgettable leader of the circles of the regional center of tourist-local lore creativity of student youth.
On the anniversary of the death in Ostrozhets village a monument was consecrated on the grave of our talented teacher, a faithful friend – Maksym Liashuk. His family, colleagues, friends and pupils, his fighting counterparts from the “Svitiaz” special unit and Volyn Self-Defense Army came to honor Maxym.
Maxym was only 25 years old, but he left a good trace and a bright memory in the hearts of all who knew him. How tangled to the tears of memories, warm words about this beautiful young man was said.
His eyes smile again from the stelae..
Heroes do not die, they go to heaven! And we, alive, must be worthy of their feat! The best monument for Maxym and thousands of Heroes will be a flowering and independent Ukraine, for which they did not regret the most expensive – their own lives!
Eternal memory and glory to you, Maxym! Glory to Ukraine!
A young widow, Olha Liashuk, shared her thoughts with the audience: “Today, the people gathered for Maxym’s family. Not the one at home, but the brothers with whom you are struggling side by side, the tourists, who show the beauty of the Motherland, colleagues, friends. We all have lost a lot, and Matviiko – the most, because he won`t have his own memories of the dad, but will know him only from the stories of loved ones. I promise here, in front of all, that the son will grow, knowing about his father’s feat and h
onoring his memory. Matviiko will be proud to be the son of the Hero. There are friends of Maksym who passed the “corridor of death”, otherwise you will not call it … It’s hard to listen to the story of that “corridor,” and imagine how it was possible to survive – it’s unrealistic.
And the Hero looks from the picture
On Sunday, August 14, on the so-called Savior of the Honey Feast Day, the family of the deceased, our countryman Maxym Liashuk from Ostrozhets who died 2 years ago in Donbass, participated in festive worship. Parents of hero – Nataliia Volodymyrivna and Volodymyr Vasylovych, his wife – Olha Volodymyrivna with the little son Matviiko were invited by the priest of St. Michael’s Church – Taras Varvaruk. After the festive liturgy, priest Taras prayed for the repose of the soldiers who perished in ATO, and emphasized that it is necessary to mention and remember their names in constant prayers, because they gave their lives, defending our peaceful present. At the end of the liturgy
, the priest invited the Liashuk family and performed a pleasant mission: he gave them a picture of the son, husband and dad Maxym Liashuk, whose author is Nina Avgustin and her daughter Maria. I remind you that this creative work of a talented brush master is one of five paintings depicting the lost soldier of our district – Yurii Itkaliuk, Petro Polytsiak, Roman Halas and Oleksii Kirys. After the presentation of Nina Augustine’s paintings in the district library, they had been in the reading room for a few months already. Subsequently they were given to the relatives of the dead.
From now on, the ima
ge of Maxym Liashuk on the colored canvas, will remind himself as forever young to the most akin. Perhaps it is not an accident that priest Taras invited Maksym’s family to the St. Michael’s Church. In fact, in the end of August, as reported by “Homin”, the second anniversary of the tragedy near Ilovaysk occurred, during which the commander of the platoon of special forces “Svitiaz”, lieutenant Maxym Liashuk died. Therefore, a common prayer for the restoration of his soul and a portrait-gift is the minimum gratitude that one can honor the feat of our hero-fellow countryman, for the sons-falcon parents, beloved man and dad Maksym.
Thus, at the same day in the temple the family of Liashuk presented the icon of St. Nina to the artist from the district center. Subsequently, guests at the church library, got acquainted with the work of the Sunday School and were photographed in memory of it.
Order of The Eldest Son
On the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, that was launched by President Petro Poroshenko this year in Ukraine, a rally-requiem took place at the Ostrozhets Educational Complex on the occasion of the awarding the Order “For the Courage of the Third Degree” to Maksym Liashuk (posthumously), the man who defended the Fatherland in Donbass and died heroically while leaving the Ilovaiskyi Kotel on August 29, 2014.The glorious Ukrainian was buried in the cemetery in Zaporizhzhia, and only after four months the body of the knight forever resting in his native land.
A placid and moving composition was prepared by pupils of an educational institution in which the hero studied and worked. Every word breathed with memory of Maksym – a son, brother, husband, dad, fellow, villager, teacher, hero. The image of a courageous knight who gave his life for Ukraine, for us and you in a fight with a false and insidious enemy came out on the wings of those words from the depths of memory. The Russian bullets and fragments crossed the flight of his summers and springs, but the memory from the hearts and the spirit of his brothers will not be supplanted by any force.
At the mournful event, the community minted the memory of Maksym, who dreamed of a free and independent Ukraine, and laid his head on the battlefield for it. The chairman of Ostroh Oleh Parkhomei wished all the peaceful sky under their heads, to be ready for the war, but not to fight, to be a strong and courageous patriot. The chairman of the district administration Alla Chernii noted that there are not enough words that can convey the pain of the relatives of Maksym, and wished everyone in their hearts to preserve the memory of those who put the body and soul for the future of Ukraine.
The head of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Volyn region, Petro Shpyha, stated with sadness : seven of the fourty fighters of the special purpose company “Svitiaz” on the east of Ukraine died. Unfortunately, one of them is Maksym Liashuk. Petro Petrovych noted that it was difficult for the boys to act in military situations, since they were not taught to kill and never did that. They were the ones of the first to take a fight, And seven of them went to the extraterrestrial tribe.
On behalf of the Minister of the Interior, Petro Shpyha presented the Order “For the Courage of the Third Degree” to his father and son of Maksym Liashuk – Volodymyr Vasyliovych and little Matvii: the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko awarded Maksym for the courage and heroism shown in the battles for the independence of Ukraine. The moment of rewarding is extremely affecting : the father measured the loss of pain with each nerve and the heart string, and Matviiko will do it over time – now the baby is powerless to have such a burden. Grandpa Volodia, grandmother Nataliia, mother Olia, uncle Taras and others will be sowing the soul of a boy with greatness of life steps for during the years.
The colleague of Maksym – Valentyna Onyshchuk stated: unfortunately, the heroes die and go to heaven, and they live on the earth in our memory. Every step we make is checking our Maksym. Red poppies on the chest – this is not a tribute to the fashion, it is a drop of blood of UPA soldiers, the heroes of ATO. This is our memory. And the heroes live as long as we have this memory.
Deputy Head of the Regional State Administration Oleksandr Savchuk mentioned that local and regional authorities should make efforts to prevent the family of Maksym Liashuk to be in need.
The friends of Maksym note that future generations will be brought up on the example of Maksym’s life, and they will make efforts to drive the enemy out of our land so that no evil will trample our land, so that Ukraine will become a free and powerful European state, because of that life of the hero from Ostrozhets was given.
Volodymyr Kozliuk, the director of the NSC, announced a lot of patriotic pages of Maxym’s biography.
The memory of the heroes who died during the Second World War, the Afghan warriors, the ATO heroes, all the heroes who gave their lives for Ukraine was honored by one minute of silence at the rally-requiem. The best students of the school put the wreaths on the graves of their fellow villagers and to memorials.
