He dreamed of liberating his native Crimea from the occupiers, and he worked to achieve that goal through action, not just words. In August 2022, while saving a comrade, Ukrainian soldier Sviatoslav Aleksepolskyi was killed.
He was born on October 30, 1989, in the Crimean city of Saky. He attended Ukrainian classes at Crimean schools and the Crimean Republican Boarding School for Gifted Children in the village of Tankove, where lessons were taught in English. As a child, he became fascinated with chess and visited the Simferopol Chess Club. He was also active in hiking and, as a teenager, co-founded a parkour team in Simferopol with his friends. Sports were an inseparable part of Sviatoslav’s life. He later tried his hand at boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, karate, kickboxing, Thai boxing, pankration, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. However, football held a special place in his life, and he was an active member of the fan movement for his hometown football club “Tavriya.”
In 2012, he earned a degree in “Tourism Studies” from the Crimean branch of Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. During his second year, Sviatoslav switched to distance learning and completed his mandatory military service. A year later, he signed a contract with a military unit in Simferopol, serving as a scout.
During the EuroMaidan protests, he actively participated in all pro-Ukrainian actions on the peninsula, strongly defending Ukraine’s sovereignty in Crimea. Due to his stance, the occupation authorities began to persecute him, prompting him to flee with his family to Lviv.
Sviatoslav later joined the ranks of “Azov,” and in 2017, he signed a contract with the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade, eventually transferring to the 95th Air Assault Brigade. He took part in the Anti-Terrorist Operation and the Joint Forces Operation. In 2017, he also competed in the Ukrainian Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship, where he won his first medal.
In 2020, Sviatoslav left the military and began building a career in the IT sector. He was highly determined and, within a year, worked as a QA engineer.
When the full-scale invasion began, Sviatoslav immediately joined the defense of our country. Drawing on his combat experience, he initially provided professional training for members of volunteer battalions and participated directly in liberating Kyiv region. He later joined the 126th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He dreamt of liberating Crimea and did everything he could to make that dream a reality. During a counteroffensive in southern Ukraine at the end of August, near the settlement of Novohryhorivka in Mykolaiv region, he came to the aid of his comrades, whose commander had been severely wounded and whose offensive had stalled. Sviatoslav, by his own example, rallied his unit for a breakthrough in the final stage of the assault on enemy positions. It was here, between Novohryhorivka and Lyubomyrivka in Mykolaiv region, that the brave warrior’s heart stopped forever. On August 29, 2022, while saving a comrade, Sviatoslav Aleksepolskyi was fatally wounded by a cluster munition shell…