How the Steel Is Tempered
A year ago, in the last week of November, the events that now are known as the Revolution of Dignity started at Maidan Nezalezhnosti. There are a few our colleagues among those who were there from the beginning and who today protect the integrity and independence of Ukraine in the east.
Blacksmith, who forges Ukrainian future
One of these people is a true master of his craft, blacksmith of the Laboratory of Metal Processing of the Department of Machinery Reliability, Anatoliy Bolot. His works decorate exhibitions, galleries and homes of art lovers. He tempered his civic stand as steel. From the first days of the Revolution of Dignity Anatoliy Ivanovych was an active participant in the Maidan events. His fellows and he protected truth, dignity and honour. He was on duty during the night, and in the morning returned to his job. We were not even aware of it until on morning he came to work sooty from burned tyres – the main “weapon” of patriots.
On December 16 he was not lucky: he was alone when he was attacked by “titushki”. Four men brutally abused Anatoliy Ivanovych. But two broken ribs, concussion, multiple bruises and hematomas did not break the patriot.
When the war in eastern Ukraine broke out, Anatoliy Ivanovych signed as a volunteer to the 25th Battalion “Kievan Rus”. Recently he visited Kiev — during this short vacation he met with the staff of the department and the students of the Faculty of Agribiosystem Engineering who undergo training at the military department of the university. Today he holds a sniper rifle instead of a forging hammer, and his working place is in the suburbs of Debal'tsevo.
Anatoliy Ivanovych belives, “We will win! We will win for sure! Even the characters from Kotlyarevskyy’s “Aeneid” relish the idea that love to the Motherland can overcome military power of the enemies.”
And there are a lot of patriots in “Kievan Rus”, who are defending Debal'tsevo, a major railway junction, as well as in other volunteer battalions and units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They protect our Motherland, and those who came with weapons from the East are just mindless puppets in the hands of the Russian authorities.
A diploma can wait, but Ukraine cannot!
The 2nd-year student, Valentyn Tus, is currently a volunteer in the Battalion “Kyiv – 1”.
The monitor of his academic group, Alina Yakovenko, says, “It is hard to call his decision to fight spontaneous. Valentyn has always been an active citizen. He lived at Maidan from the beginning to the end. He saw how his friends died. He was shot but the protection clothes saved his life. He brought that bullet to the university exam in physics. Nothing stopped him from successfully passing all examinations. Now Valentyn is a soldier in the 72nd brigade.”
Zinoviy Ruzhylo,
Acting Dean of the Faculty of Agribiosystem Engineering
