In the earliest hours of the full-scale invasion, as the country was just beginning to recover from the first blows of the aggressor, he was already holding a weapon. And he was killed. One of the first. One of those who took the initial strike and did not retreat.
Senior soldier Bohdan Rudkivskyi, call sign “Rudik,” was 27 years old when he died on February 24, 2022, during a combat mission in the city of Oleshky, Kherson region. His combat vehicle came under artillery fire from Russian occupiers. Bohdan was fatally wounded by a shell fragment. Two of his comrades were burned alive.
He was not buried immediately — the enemy forces were advancing, and the area was temporarily occupied. One of his fellow soldiers dragged Bohdan’s body into a nearby grove. Local residents, risking their lives, searched for the dead to give them a proper burial. They found him only on March 7. A priest gave last rites to all three fallen soldiers, and they were laid to rest side by side in the village of Radensk near Oleshky.
Born in Bila Tserkva, Kyiv region, Bohdan lived and breathed sports from an early age. In the fifth grade, he joined a basketball club, later enrolling in a sports-focused class at School No. 18. After graduation, he studied at the Kyiv Regional Lyceum of Physical Education and Sports. Basketball was his world, his element. He played with heart, played to the very end. He had hundreds of victories in competitions and ranked among the best players of his generation in Bila Tserkva.
In 2019, Bohdan joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served as a mechanic-driver in the 1129th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment of Bila Tserkva, named after General-Khorunzhyi Mykola Kapustianskyi. Later, he was stationed guarding the border in the Kherson region — the very place where he would fight his final battle. He loved that land: the sea, the sun, the fruit. He dreamed of settling there one day. That dream came true — in a terrible way. He remained there, in the soil he loved and gave his life to defend.
Inside that scorched combat vehicle, his basketball — Bohdan’s eternal talisman — also burned. It stayed behind in Kherson, in the land he loved and where he had dreamed of living.
For his courage and loyalty to Ukraine, Bohdan was posthumously awarded the Order “For Courage,” 3rd Class, the Combatant’s Medal, and the honorary title of “Honorary Citizen of Bila Tserkva.”
Bohdan was one of the war’s first losses. He entered eternity on the very day Russia began its destruction of Ukraine. But because of people like him, Ukraine endured.