In Truskavets, a memorial plaque has been unveiled and consecrated on the facade of the Security Police Department on Lysenko Street in honour of Mykhailo Shtynda, an employee of the Truskavets Security Police Department and a soldier who was killed in action while on a combat mission in Donetsk region.
According to the organisers, the event was timed to the anniversary of his death. The memorial plaque was consecrated by four priests from Truskavets and Drohobych. The right to unveil the commemorative sign was given to the fallen soldier’s mother, Hanna Shtynda, and to his daughter.
In her address, Mykhailo’s mother spoke about his childhood and youth, his patriotic upbringing and his love for Ukraine. The Shtynda family was devout; from an early age the boy attended the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, where he heeded the guidance of the Basilian fathers. Mykhailo’s grandfather had been a UPA fighter, sentenced to the camps, and it was he who became a role model and moral compass for his grandson.
Mykhailo Shtynda was born on 27 June 1987 in Drohobych. After finishing vocational school, he worked on the railway, and in 2016 he joined the National Police. Alongside his service he obtained higher education at the Lviv Polytechnic National University. Colleagues remember him as a disciplined, physically strong and resilient fighter who cared about both his spiritual and intellectual development.
Mykhailo was married to Svitlana and was bringing up a daughter to whom he devoted special care. He made a conscious decision to go to the front: back in 2022 he signed up as a volunteer, and later joined the KORD special purpose police battalion (rifle) of the Lviv region police, where he served in Company No. 3. A senior police sergeant and inspector of the KORD battalion support unit, he carried out combat missions in the most challenging sectors of the front, working in the artillery area of operations and covering the advance and withdrawal of assault groups.
On 18 September 2025, while carrying out a combat mission in the village of Ivanopillia in Donetsk region, an FPV drone carrying explosives struck Mykhailo Shtynda. The injuries he sustained in the enemy attack proved fatal. For his courage and bravery, the police officer was posthumously awarded the Golden Cross breast badge of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Presidential decoration “For the Defence of Ukraine”.
The ceremony to unveil the memorial plaque was hosted by Truskavets City Councillor and volunteer Mariia Nastioshyn. The event also featured speeches by the Head of the Security Police Department in Lviv region, Ivan Hula, and the Mayor of Truskavets, Andrii Kulchynskyi. They thanked the family for their son and stressed that the memory of Mykhailo Shtynda would remain an example for future generations of Ukrainians.