On 29 August, the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine who died in the struggle for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, a memorial plaque was unveiled in building 18 in honour of Oleksandr Lavreniuk, a student of the Faculty of Physical Education and Technology who passed away in February this year. He also initially joined a terrorist defence unit and later became a soldier in one of the units defending the south of Ukraine. His combat work was to provide first aid to the wounded and evacuate them from the left bank of the Dnipro to conditionally safe places on the right bank. Most often under enemy fire, risking his life every minute. He saved dozens of lives, but did not save his own. Because, as one of his colleagues said at the plaque unveiling ceremony, he thought first and foremost about those who needed help and those around him. Oleksandr Lavreniuk was posthumously awarded the Order ‘For Courage’ of the third class.
‘It is very difficult to unveil another plaque to our polytechnician who gave his life for the Motherland,’ Anatolii Melnychenko said in his speech at the opening ceremony. ‘But I am sure that they will encourage our students to appreciate more what our soldiers - boys and girls - are doing at the front, to think about the price of our relatively peaceful life.
Then there were speeches, flower-laying, tears of parents and many of those present... And memories of Oleksandr Lavrynenko. ‘Sasha entered our university last year. He was studying part-time, because he had already been at war, fighting in the Kherson direction, in a unit that we helped with Mavicams, thermal imagers and special equipment thanks to our foundation,’ said Yaroslav Kornaha, Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Computer Science. He passed the first session very well - in fact, with flying colours. Although, as the teachers told us, sometimes explosions and shooting could be heard in the background of his answers - the sounds of war. He really wanted to pass the second one, but he didn't have time because he died saving his comrade-in-arms.’
It should be added that the memorial plaque unveiled on 29 August is the fourth in this building...