He went to war without telling his family. In October 2023, the heart of a brave warrior and athlete Dmytro Odynets stopped beating forever…
He was born on March 4, 2000 in Rivne. After graduating from high school, he moved to Kyiv, where he entered the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. During studying Dmytro became interested in sports. He represented his university in swimming competitions. He specialized in long distances: in Odesa, he swam 1000 meters, and in Minsk, he won silver in the 5000 meters. In addition to swimming, he was also fond of running: he participated in half marathons all over Ukraine and ran the full Kyiv marathon. In 2019, he became the winner of the Run Ukraine Running League, scoring the most points in 6 races. Dmytro admitted that thanks to running he discovers Ukraine.
Later, he started working as a coach, teaching children to swim. And after receiving his diploma, he found himself in the IT.
After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Dmytro wanted to join the army, but because of his health problems, he was denied at all military recruitment offices. So he started helping volunteers – he worked in the «Solomiansky Kotyky» charity foundation. At the same time, he was looking for options to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine – he even passed the selection process for the «Azov» regiment, but was rejected there as well. Instead, in July 2023, he was finally able to get into the service. The guy was accepted to the battalion “Da Vinci Wolves”. There, he was given the call sign “IT” because of his pre-war job. He did not tell his family that he was fighting in one of the most difficult areas of the frontline. Dmytro’s sister Veronika thought he was a drone operator, but not part of an assault platoon.
On October 16, 2023, during a battle with the invaders near the village of Synkivka in Kharkiv region, an enemy grenade landed in the trench where Dmytro was and took the life of a 23-year-old Ukrainian defender…