MARCH 22, 1989 — APRIL 29, 2022
33 YEARS, JOURNALIST
Maksym Medynskyi was killed defending his country, on April 29, 2022 during an artillery strike in Kharkiv region. «The war goes on, and will keep on going for a long while. We need to face it and not let them put even more pressure on us. Sadly, the deranged neighbor can only understand the language of brute force. If the hostilities resume, I am ready to go back to the front lines at any moment», said Maksym.
The journalist had already had military experience. In 2014, he came to the military commissariat on his own. He was second-in-command of the mortar battery of the 1st battalion. In 2015, he was discharged with unwavering intent to start a family. He has a three-year-old daughter Alisa now. «I am willing to fight in the war so that my baby daughter does not have to live under Soviet regime», Maksym explained. He had many grievances about the daily state of affairs, but never did his internal quandaries come close to the ever-present threat of yet another Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian lands, Maksym was sure. He never wanted to live anywhere but Ukraine.
Maksym was born on March 22, 1989 in the town Bolhrad, Odesa region. He was raised in a military family; his father was a war journalist, his mother — a trained teacher, yet she was in military service as well. His childhood friends were the children of servicemen, who, same as Maksym, had dreamt of becoming paratroopers. He graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Journalism and worked for the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine; also, he helped the team that backed Naftogaz in the natural gas war and disruption of «Nord Stream 2». Maksym had his fair share of interesting state projects and energy sector сases.
In 2015, when Maksym returned from the war, together with his sister Oksana he published a book «Photo diary of Ukrainian Cyborg». It is about the year that the journalist spent at the front. About cold and hunger in the name of peace in Ukrainians’ lives.
His sisters recalls that Maksym was a mentor for her. He taught her not to be afraid of anything since they were little. Before the war, two of them were having a dinner they used to have on a regular basis, Oksana asked, «What do I need to have in case of the war?» Maksym just took her shopping, where they got a gas burner and a gas tank. In several days, he had backpacks with supplies ready for all of his girls — his wife, his daughter, his sister. His sister understood right away: the war was inevitable, same as Maksym leaving his journalistic job behind and taking off to the front lines was inevitable as well.
«If you stand in the way of a person who believes they are doing the right thing, you are more likely to lose the person than you would in the war, — the deceased thought. He was not scared of dying, he was afraid of losing his life in some stupid situation. — My country is at war, there is no question about defending it or not», said Maksym. He was 33. He is buried at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv.
