Story of 36-year-old staff sergeant, who died on day of invasion, highlights pain and misery that has been felt across Ukraine in the last 12 months
enys Tkach is remembered by his wife, who washed his bullet-riddled body before burying him in his wedding suit, as a doting father, the love of her life. For those who fought alongside him, Tkach was a kind man and a leader. The history books may record him as the first Ukrainian soldier to be killed as Vladimir Putin’s troops swept intoThe 36-year-old staff sergeant died alone shortly after 3.
Oksana Tkach and her two children, Roman and Dominica, stand on the porch of their temporary accommodation in Volodymyr, western Ukraine.After telling his soldiers to quietly retreat, Tkach had scrambled to grab hold of the position’s sole machine gun, a last act that would earn him a posthumous medal for bravery.
“The border guards were the first to feel the treachery of the enemy on themselves and in all directions engaged in battle with the overwhelming forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” a spokesperson for the state border guard said. “At 3.40am, according to the Milove department of the Luhansk detachment, Russian invaders fired small arms in the area of the settlement of Zorynivka. Ukrainian border guards were killed.
Oksana smiles at the memory of how her life had been entwined with Tkach’s from the start. “We are from the same village. I lived on one street, and he lived over on the other side,” she says. “We’ve known each other since we were kids. Of course, there’s seven years difference between us, so he knew me first, and I knew him later. Eventually, I grew up and started going to discos and stuff, and started to socialise. We were always friends.
Oksana suggested he sign up for one final year, knowing that her husband would hate to be stuck at home. He signed a new contract in January. “I told him, let’s give it another year, and hope the situation improves. But overall he liked it. He always went on border patrols, so he spent his days walking the border, and you know he was a hunter, a fisherman, he loved the outdoors, it was perfect for him.
The two chatted. Tkach mentioned that he planned to take 2 March off to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. Then they settled down to get some sleep, while their colleagues took their turn to patrol outside.At around 3am, news came through on the radio to the hut that unidentified armed men had been seen on Ukrainian territory in the region.
Patrolling in the village, 300 metres behind the checkpoint, staff sergeant Oleksandr and a junior colleague could not hear the bullets shot from silenced weapons. But the local dogs could and began to bark. Oksana then called her husband’s commander, who insisted that all those at the border had retreated and were safe. But she could not be convinced.
She got to her husband, collapsed on to him, trying to stir him back to life. The body was already stiff. Every part of him was assaulted by bullets, even his fingers were broken. Blood was smeared across his face. “I don’t understand how you could put so many bullets into a single man. Everything around was covered with bullet cases, the asphalt around him, and the railway car was all shot-through.
The next morning at 5am, Tkach’s parents arrived to see their son. Then Oksana had to drive the body 80km to a coroner before returning for a short funeral in her home, and burial in the local graveyard, 500 metres from the house. “I remember my sister was all over me, saying: ‘Take this, take this.’ And I kept telling her: ‘Quit trying to drug me, I want to be in my own mind, I want to remember everything.
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