Serhii Levchuk was born on March 5, 1976, in the village of Babyn, Hoshcha Raion, Rivne Oblast. After finishing 9 forms of Babyn Secondary School in 1992, he entered Korets Special Trade School No. 24, where he studied from September 1992 to May 1994. Having finished it, Serhii went into the military service in the city of Uzhhorod.
After the service, he worked at Babyn-Tomakhiv Sugar Factory. On September 26, 2014, Serhii was mobilized in the town of Yavoriv where he served as a mechanic-driver of the 2nd Mechanized Division of the 2nd Mechanized Platoon, 12th Mechanized Company, 4th Mechanized Battalion, 24th Air-mobile Brigade.
He died on November 10, 2014, in the defense of the checkpoint in the village of Krymske, Lysychansk Raion, Luhansk Oblast.
Serhii Levchuk was posthumously awarded the Third Class Order For Bravery for courage and heroism demonstrated in the defense of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
He kept the plateau of the Sun over Ukraine
Goshcha district is mourning the hero again. The unbridled desperation embodies in mother, wife, children, and all relatives’ bitter tears in memory of 38-year-old Serhii Levchuk. The war shortened his life. Another innocent and pure soul fell on the altar of peace.
Serhii, like the rest of the conscious Ukrainians, strived to protect his country from “fraternal” aggression, concerned about his children’s future, and wanted to support his mother and brothers. He dreamed of the war end and his happy return. But everything appeared to be in its own way: the private of the 24th airmobile brigade Serhii Levchuk died while defending the checkpoint in the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone. The terrible news quickly spread in Serthii’s native town Babyn. Everybody got to know the sad news about one more loss of a defender and warrior from Goshcha area.
All people who knew Serhii since his childhood mention his kindness and candid soul.
– He was blonde-haired, chubby smiling boy. – Reminisced Serthii’s mentor Larysa Avramchuk. – The classmates respected him for his loyalty and sincerity in the relationships. He appreciated friendship and kept his words. In addition to his sturdy stature, he was strong, sporty, and agile, played football and volleyball, was the best in throwing the ball and running. However, he had never boasted of his skills and natural force.
After finishing the ninth grade, Serhii decided to continue his education in Korets secondary vocational school. Despite schooling in another town, he did not forget about his native house and his mother, Tetiana Ivanivna. Like her, he was kind, industrious, and helpful.
The years of schooling went away; and time of military service came closer. Serhii served with dignity. After returning to his native town, he found a job, created a family. Soon the firstborn appeared in the young family. Tetiana Ivanivna became the Roman’s and (later) Maria’s grandmother.
The year 2014 had not only changed many people’s peaceful life, but also their fate. The routine of the Levchuks’ was changed. One summer day Serhii received a summons for medical examination and later was conscripted to the army. He was such type of a man who was accustomed to hard work and responsibility for his family; thus, he was not afraid of difficulties. He went to defend the right of his relatives and all Ukrainians to live in peace on their land.
– The duty of every man is to be a soldier to protect his family. – His friends remembered his words.
Serhii was a real warrior and performed the duty of the defender with honor. Despite a heavy heart, he smiled while saying goodbye to his mother, while hugging his wife and children.
– He was a great and highly skilled master. – Say about Levchuk in the neighborhood. – Every matter he started became success. Whenever and whoever came to him for help, for sure got assistance. If only he could still be alive and continue his life rejoicing at his children and taking care of his wife and mother.
– Life is a moment, a flash; years are flying. – says Larysa Avramchuk bewailing for her former pupil. – Here is a photo where Serhii is a graduate from the ninth grade. The photo was taken in the spring when the nature bloomed, when young hearts were filled with dreams of the future. Look at the gentle eyes of this blonde boy; note the warmth and childish sincerity that his smile radiates! Such a boy Serhii was twenty years ago. And such a boy we remember, me and his classmates. A kind man who became a hero, a representative of a generation, which, flowing with blood, holds on its shoulders the plateau of the Sun over Ukraine …
Iryna Povar
The schools are graced with granite of commemorative plaques
Ukrainian schools should be islands of tranquility and peace for each child till the adulthood opens its own doors. However, the school is always a kind of a litmus paper as it responds sharply to all contemporary processes and quickly develops its own criteria of their evaluation and the algorithm of creating the values of schoolchildren. Today, our schools turn into memorial citadel, graced with granite of commemorative plaques. This new history of modern Ukraine includes the pages full of names of those warriors who died for the better life here, in our country.
On February 18 at Babyn secondary school, a memorial board of a school graduate was opened for a habitant of Babyn Serhii Levchuk, who died on November 10 performing a combat mission during the Anti-Terrorist Operation in eastern Ukraine.
The opening ceremony took place during the solemnity attended by teachers and pupils, relatives of the deceased, villagers of Serhii Levchuk, district leaders, village chairperson, and representatives of the regional organization of the Ukrainian Union of Veterans of Afghanistan. The latter, in fact, were the initiators of the commemorative plaque installation.
It was incredibly difficult to look at the grief of the mother mourning for her child, at his son and daughter bewailing for their father, at the wife who lost a reliable shoulder of support. In their grief, they were not alone, as all the present also mourned for Serhii, and, at the same time, for all who died and – it’s hard to say – will still perish, breaking the bands of many years of shackles.
We do not want to speculate on the grief. We would like to talk about the two components of memory retention process of our nation. Firstly, the commemorative plaque as a true but not full tribute to the memory of a person who didn’t get lost in his own fears, though paid too high price for this. Many people, although, now speak about heroism (and, undoubtedly, Serhii Levchuk is a hero), I’d love to mention him as a man who had his own views and principles, a man who was not a statist of a system, and a man with active civic position, clear philosophy, and concept of life. I want to remember him as a father who found the strength to leave his son and daughter and take the weapon into his hands to create the story of his family in such a way. For sure, his family knows the value of Ukrainian sacrifice and patriotism. I want to speak about a worthy citizen who today should be an example for everybody in the cities and towns of our country who has an idea how to manage the world.
The second component is the commemorative plaque as the set of the experience, actions, teaching of the educators of the Babyn School and (no matter how horrible!) the most significant and important argument in the upbringing of the new generation of Ukrainians. It is worth to look into the pupils’ eyes and see that children encounter such events in the smallest details in their hearts because of their spiritual purity and naivety. It is worth to understand how deeply war hurts them and makes them to perceive each loss as personal. These whales are the basis for the educational process in the contemporary school, and our children grow and form in this atmosphere. And the teacher as a mentor, conductor, and mastermind plays an extremely important role in this process.
Somebody from the greats said that the military do not win the war, but rural teachers and parish priests. If we are talking about such teachers as in Babyn the victory is our. It cannot happen differently for the sake of all those who gave their hearts, souls, and lives for Ukraine as our brother Serhii Levchuk did.
Relatives of the warrior Serhii Levchuk from Goshcha area have an everyday remembrance of him – his favourite dove Fedora.
Serhii Levchuk died suddenly while defending the checkpoint. Shattered wound was very heavy and did not give any chance for life for private of the 24th airmobile brigade.
– Serhii had no even a thought not to return from the war, – his family says.
38-year-old Serhii levchuk, father of two children, inhabitant of a village Babyn in Goshcha area became a soldier also by chance. As his wife says, within two days he took all medical examinations, in two more – went to the proving ground, and a bit later joined ATO.
His relatives do nit hide that they had tried to refuse him from this decision. But Serhii was sure that he would go to defend his country anyway.
After Serhii’s death, his son became real head of the family; now 16-year-old Roman gratefully recalls the vital guidelines his father had given to him. And his mother remembers his extraordinary kind and, at the same time, firm character.
Serhii was a real handyman; he mended and compiled technique and instruments by himself. He did not like to boast but was a man of action.
By 38 birthday Serhii he became a happy father of two children, built a house and planted a tree, even not only one. Just before the war, he planted all those seedlings near his house as he had always dreamed about a garden, which could become a home for his favourite white dove Fedora.
We do not have any right to forget. We do not have any right to pretend that nothing happens. While honouring the memory of the dead, do not forget about the alive. They need your support and attention.
Yuliana Tet, Ihor Prokopchuk
Bibliography
Kalka N. (2015). Granitom memorialnykh doshok ubyraiutsia shkoly // Ridnii krai: Hromadsko-politychna hazeta [Native area: Public and political newspaper], # 8 (February 21).
Adamchuk N. (2015). U Babynskii shkoli vidkryly memorialnu doshku // Vilne slovo: Hromadsko-politychna hazeta [Free word: Public and political newspaper], # 9 (February 26).
Povar I. Vin utrymuvav plato Sontsia nad Ukrainoiu // Ridnii krai: Hromadsko-politychna hazeta [Native area: Public and political newspaper], # 46 (November 11).
Davydiuk O. Rivnenshchyna: u zoni ATO zagynuv voin z Hoshchanshchyny // OGO.
Slonets B. Siogodni na Hoshchanshchyni lytymytsia sliozy // ERVE.UA
U zoni ATO zahynuv shche odyn viiskovyi z Rivnenshchyny – Serhii Levchuk // Zik: syla informatsii [Zik: power of information].
Na Hoshchanshchyni vidkryly memorialnu doshku zahyblomu v ATO // Novyny po-rivnensky [Rivne news].
V Babynskii shkoli vidkryly memorialnu doshku biitsiu syl ATO + FOTO // Hoshchanskyi shchodennyk [Goshcha Diary].
Tet Yu., Prokopchuk I. Ridnym pro zahybloho voina Serhiia Levchuka z Hoshchanshchyny postiino nahaduie yoho uliublena holubka Fedora [VIDEO] // Tsina svobody. Rivne1.tv [The price of the freedom. Rivne1.tv].