Valeriy Vasin, a resident of Cherkasy, volunteered to defend his native land. When Russia boldly invaded Ukraine with a full-scale war on February 24, he was abroad. But he immediately returned to defend Kherson, where his family remained.
With the rank of sergeant, Valeriy Vasin was the commander of a grenade launcher unit of a separate marine battalion.
He was killed on October 12 last year in a battle with the enemy in the Kherson region. He was 47 years old.
His wife, Olena Vasina, tells us about the occupation, about the fact that she had no thoughts of leaving the country, and about her husband, a hero who will always be in the hearts of his family and in our memory.
This side is our home. We had a tradition, Iryna came up with the idea that on January 1, our dad would swim in the river,” Olena, the wife of the fallen defender, shows a photo on her phone. She, her husband, daughter and dog on the banks of the Dnipro.
On this side, our bank, the right bank, which is the distance to the Dnipro, is already under occupation. When Kherson was de-occupied, there was no electricity or water for several days. People would go out with buckets to get water, and snipers from the other side would shoot them.
Olena and her family lived in Kherson for a long time. It was there that a full-scale war caught her and her children. They survived the occupation. They managed to leave Kherson by a miracle in April 2022.
Her husband was abroad in Poland at the time of the full-scale invasion. He waited a little bit for the family to leave, but it was clear that they would not be let out. From the first days the troops came in. They were definitely in the city on the 26th. And no one was allowed to leave. The city was closed.
Valeriy did not wait for his family to leave the occupied city and returned to Ukraine in March. Most of all, he wanted to defend Kherson.
He got as close to Odesa as possible, enlisted in the marines, and asked to be sent to the Kherson direction to liberate his own people. In March, I was on the front line in Mykolaiv, defending Mykolaiv. Then they were taken elsewhere, and in August he asked to go to the Kherson direction again, transferred to another brigade to liberate Kherson. He was killed near Kherson.
As he said: “Alionka, I’m already walking on my native land, a rainbow meets us. From the trench, he would throw the phone to me to say in the morning, I love you, good morning, sweetheart. I miss this very much now…
He did not go on vacation, says Olena. They managed to see each other very rarely. In particular, for two hours when she and her children left the occupation. Then Valeriy was sent back to the front line, and the family went to Cherkasy. On the day of the funeral, Valeriy was supposed to fly to the UK to study. He spoke English well and knew Polish. He had a law degree. But he never made it to the UK.
Just when it happened, it was a mortar attack, and he took over. A car had already left to pick him up, all the documents were ready. The guys said they were half an hour late….
Her comrades appreciated their commander, the woman recalls. They told Olena that he was always calm, balanced, and even during the shelling, even though they had seen everything, they were still nervous. But they would look at him and immediately calm down.
Valeriy Vasin was killed on October 12 last year as a result of enemy shelling during a combat engagement with enemy forces. They were preparing a bridgehead for the liberation of Kherson.
Along with the man’s body, the family received his phone. They found a video greeting to his daughter on her birthday. But the father did not have time to send it – he was unable to, and a day later Valeriy died.
Valerii Vasin is the vice president of the Kyokushinkai Federation of Ukraine, headed the Kherson regional branch of the Federation, multiple champion and prize-winner of Ukraine, bronze medalist of the 15th European Championship. Before the war, he worked as a coach and teacher and devoted himself to the education of children and youth in Kherson. He had his own team.
He has a second dan in karate, a black belt, a second dan. He is a prize-winner in Europe, first or second place in Ukraine. We have a son, 18 years old, who has also been practicing karate, and he also took first or second place in Ukraine. Now he is studying at a military institute. It was very difficult, the war had just started and I was very afraid, but the child was already “charged”, it was his dream since he was five years old. I have no right to break his dream, says Olena.
Despite the fact that it is impossible to measure grief, Olena is glad that Valeriy was able to see the most important events in the family’s life. He took his son’s oath of office. And he managed not to betray his childhood dream and entered the university where he wanted to go.
There are a lot of such memories. Mostly you live by memory. The only thing is that you can’t look at the photos without crying. It seems like it’s some kind of past life.
Olena says she never thought about leaving Ukraine. The family loves their country and has loved it even before it became popular, she says. From the first grade, her son wore an embroidered shirt to school in Kherson, and they tried to speak Ukrainian. And now Olena is sure that Ukraine will win.
“I want to win, to the best of my ability. I want this to end only in victory, we have no other choice, because Ukraine will win.