In Lviv, by the memorial plaque on the facade of Vocational School No. 20, where Vitalii Skakun studied, a commemorative event was held to mark what would have been his 30th birthday. Participants gathered to honour the Hero of Ukraine who, at the cost of his own life, blew up the Henichesk road bridge at the start of the full-scale invasion.
On 24 February 2022, Vitalii’s unit was tasked with mining the bridge in Henichesk, along which Russian troops were advancing from occupied Crimea. When the standard detonation system failed, the serviceman voluntarily agreed to carry out the detonation manually. At around six in the morning, he contacted his comrades and reported that he was setting off the explosives. Vitalii carried out the detonation but did not have time to retreat to a safe distance. The destruction of the bridge halted the advance of the Russian column and gave Ukrainian forces time to redeploy and organise their defence.
For this act of valour, on 26 February 2022, Vitalii Skakun was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the “Gold Star”. He was 25 years old at the time of his death.
During the event by the school, Lviv Regional Council deputy Halyna Chorna addressed those present. She stressed that the memory of the defender should be more widely represented in Lviv’s urban space and not limited to a single memorial plaque.
“Vitalii studied and lived in our city, and through his actions did so much for it that this plaque is a significant, but still insufficient, step. There should be a street in Vitalii’s memory, a square or another public space named after him,” said Halyna Chorna.
The memory of Vitalii Skakun has already been honoured in other cities and countries. In Prague, a bridge has been named after him, and in 2024 a street in Kyiv was renamed in his honour. He is also an honorary citizen of Berezhany and of the Polish city of Leszno.
Vitalii Skakun was born on 19 August 1996 in Berezhany. In Lviv, he trained as an electric and gas welder at Vocational School No. 20, studied at Lviv Polytechnic, and in 2019 joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in the 35th Separate Marine Brigade.
During the commemorative event in Lviv, teachers and students of the school performed the State Anthem of Ukraine, honoured the fallen defenders with a minute of silence and laid flowers at the memorial plaques. Today, Vitalii Skakun would have turned 30.