Stanislav Vodolazhskyi, a children’s football coach, was killed while saving his comrades on the frontline.
He was born on 12 February 1997 in Zaporizhzhia. Like millions of people around the world, Stanislav has loved football since childhood. He started playing as a goalkeeper for the local “Ajax” team. After school, he understood that it was difficult to build a career as a footballer, because professional clubs are looking for tall players to play goalkeeper. Despite this, Stanislav was not going to say goodbye to football. He continued to play, but at the amateur level.
At the age of 17, he became an assistant coach at sports school, where he had studied. He worked with small children who were just getting to know football. Later he started working as a coach himself. He liked this job so much that he literally lived there, devoting all his free time to it. He even helped to build a football pitch with other coaches, where he worked later. Stanislav wanted to develop as a coach and help his students discover their talents. That’s why he gave free lessons, because not everyone could afford to pay. The children adored him and came to train with great pleasure.
After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in April 2022, Stanislav and his two friends voluntarily decided to defend Ukraine and went to the military commissariat. He completed training, joined the 6th Infantry Battalion, received the call sign “Messi” and went to the Avdiivka area. During his year of service, he received several concussions, but when they were recruiting for airborne units which did not accept people with concussions, Stanislav denied having them. That’s how he ended up in the 79th separate air assault brigade.
On 20 December 2023, Stanislav, together with his two brothers-in-arms, performed a combat mission near the village of Novomykhailivka, Donetsk region. On the way to the positions, one of the soldiers from the group was wounded by the occupiers. Stanislav heard about it on the radio and went to provide first aid. As his friends later told, the wounded soldier lost a leg, an arm and an eye, but thanks to Stanislav he survived and told about the tragedy of that day. When “Messi ” was providing medical assistance, another shot was fired, having wounded another soldier of the group. Stanislav immediately ran to his comrade. He managed to get to him, but the occupiers attacked the positions again. Unfortunately, this attack was fatal, both for Stanislav and the defender he was trying to help.
Stanislav was a brave warrior with a strong spirit, a true friend who could always be relied on, and a real coach. A lot of people came to say goodbye to the Hero who gave his life for the future of Ukraine, including a huge amount of his students.
At home, his parents, sister and niece were waiting for him to the last…