Yurii M. Bilous was born on February 25, 1962, in the town of Dubrovytsia. He finished Dubrovytsia Vocational School number 6 in 1980. On July 12, 2016, the Recruiting Station of the town of Dubrovytsia called him up for the contract-based military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The serviceman perished on January 26 in the Anti-Terrorist Operation area at the military base camp of the village of Raihorodka, Novoaidarivsk raion, Luhansk oblast. According to the official information, Yurii Bilous died of a fatal injury caused by a bullet of an enemy sniper. He died a month before his 55 anniversary.
The deceased left an elderly mother, a wife, two sons and a little granddaughter.
The warrior was buried at the municipal cemetery of the town of Dubrovytsia.
Yurii’s son Vasyl says:
– Father called me in the evening before his death when I came back from work. He was asking calmly and sympathetically about everybody. And suddenly we lost the connection. I tried to call him but he was out of range. I really loved and respected my father.
Nadiia, the widow, tells us:
– I met Yurii when we were seasonally working in Mlyniv. Right from that moment I liked his simplicity, sincerity and kindness. He was always ready to help. He was hard-working and friendly. When we got acquainted I had a son. Yurii accepted my child as his own. Than our younger son Vitalik was born. I am from Mukachivskyi district so here in Dybrovytsia my husband and children were my closest family. We lived, smiled and cried together, and tried to cope with difficulties of life for 23 years. There were happy moments. Yurii loved his grandchildren. Our youngest granddaughter was only three months old when he went to the war. He loved her in a special way. When he was calling us, he asked about the little one a lot of questions: how she was growing up or whether she was teething.
I tried to stop him. I asked him to not go to the ATO. His age was not appropriate for that. But he was set on it. He decided to go and I could not stop him. He called us quite often because he was interested about everything: how I was, how his mother was and how were his children and grandchildren. After his birthday he wanted to take a leave.
Two days before his death I felt really depressed. I told Vitalik that maybe something would happen to our grandmother. Who had thought about something like that?
Also before his death a bird hit Yurii’s brother’s window two times with its nib, which is not a good sign.
Dybrovytsia is not my native land. I am amazed that so many great people came to carry out husband and father to afterlife. I am so thankful to everybody who shared our grief.
I am thankful to the local government for the organisation of funeral. They organized everything in the best possible way.
I am thankful to ATO veterans who carried the coffin on their shoulders, to Father Serhii for his spiritual work and to singers in choir. I hope that their destiny will be good to them. I want to say “thank you” to every person that was with us that day. I cannot say this to everybody personally but I’m praying for God’s grace for you. Sorry, I don’t know how to speak with great words and my soul is still bitterly crying…
