The news of his death was delivered to his mother by the occupiers at a checkpoint. While defending his native Mariupol, footballer Kyrylo Marchenko lost his life.
He was born on January 21, 1991, in the town of Snihne, Donetsk region. In 2003, his family moved to Mariupol, where he enrolled in the Donetsk Institute of Tourism Business. From an early age, he had a passion for football – during his school and university years, he played as a goalkeeper and participated in various competitions. His love for the sport led him in 2008 to the fan stands. Together with the city’s main team, “Mariupol”, Kyrylo traveled across the country, supporting the club at both home and away matches. It was during this time that he adopted the call sign “Pride.” He later became one of the co-founders of the football-related collective “Yunist.”
In 2014, when the Russian invasion began, Kyrylo took up arms to defend our country. In September of the same year, he and his comrades from “Yunist” almost in full force joined the ranks of the Azov Battalion, where he served until 2022.
His brother, Mykola, recalls that in 2015, during the Shyrokyne operation, they were resting together on the first floor of a building and did not want to go down to the basement because it was so cold. Suddenly, Kyrylo woke him up and said that the occupiers were shelling heavily with Grad rockets, and it would be better to go to the basement. They went down, and just a minute later, a shell hit the room where they had been sitting, leaving no living space.
After the full-scale invasion began, Kyrylo continued to defend his native Mariupol, which was relentlessly attacked by Russian forces with various weapons. On March 29, 2022, while carrying out a combat mission, he and five of his comrades were tasked with mining a road. Unfortunately, the young men came under enemy airstrike while holding mines in their hands.
Kyrylo’s parents remained in blockaded Mariupol for quite a long time. They finally decided to leave the city in early April 2022. At one of the checkpoints, after restoring all the photos and programs on their phones, the occupiers found images of their sons in military uniform. Because of this, both were detained, and they were later informed that Kyrylo had died. For the entire eight months in captivity, his parents prayed and believed that their son was still alive. However, when they returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory during the next prisoner exchange, the tragic news was confirmed…