A memorial plaque to the student of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Vadym Zherebylo was put up on the building of Y. O. Paton Educational and Research Institute of Materials Science and Welding. Vadym got killed in the battle for the TPP in the town of Shchastya in Luhansk Region on January 31, 2015. He was 21 years old.
His mother Liubov Volodymyrivna, teachers, brothers-in-arms, and Vadym’s friends came to the ceremonial opening of the plaque to honour the memory of the hero.
Vadym fought in the Aidar Battalion from the beginning of the war in the east of Ukraine; he joined the Battalion as a volunteer immediately after the Revolution of Dignity, where he was an active participant. Liubov Volodymyrivna recalls that after Vadym's death, she found out that he was one of those who first set fire to a prison truck in Hrushevsky Street. She also remembers how her son responded to her concerns: "Mom, I don't want any scumbag with a machine gun to walk through our land." Mena is a city in Chernihiv Oblast, Vadym's small motherland.
During the hostilities, the young man was wounded, but he did not leave the battlefield, because he could not leave his brothers-in-arms. In the battalion, the soldier always helped the younger and less experienced comrades. Posthumously, Vadym was awarded the Order for Courage of 3rd degree.
The ceremonial opening of the memorial plaque was planned for April, but a full-scale invasion occurred. Two of Vadym's brothers-in-arms, a student and an employee of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, who wanted to come and honor his memory, are also gone. Dmytro Syniuk got killed on February 25 defending Kyiv. Bizhan Sharopov is listed as missing, though his comrades-in-arms reported that he got killed near Izium.
"Vadym was always steadfast for his principles and proved that with his short life. Today it is often said: "Heroes never die." But these words will only make sense when each of you remembers some of the heroes from your cities, schools and universities, whom you knew, when you tell your children and grandchildren about them," - Liubov Volodymyrivna said in her speech at the opening of the memorial plaque.
The hero's mother reminded: one cannot devalue the feat of those who were the first to defend the motherland in 2014 and did not let the war spread, those who held the line until 2022.
The event ended with a moment of silence in remembrance of all those who died defending their motherland.