AUGUST 14, 1993 — MAY 22, 2023
29 YEARS, JOURNALIST, ANTHROPOLOGIST
The fatal year of Yevhenii’s life started in the trenches. The journalist served in the 77th Airmobile Brigade of the Air Assault Forces after the full-scale invasion. He was a gunman and a medic. He was nicknamed «Vegan» by his brothers-in-arms, with troopers from other units calling him the «Film Critic».
Yevhenii recorded his final interview in between combat missions. He spoke to a British geneticist and science popularizer, Adam Rutherford. This was an anticipated topic for the journalist, and he could barely wait. Yevhenii translated and wrote down the transcribed 54 pages of the interview. He then typed in the text in his smartphone with precise instructions for the publication, so that no one would change a single word of it.
In five days, when the «Kunsht» media published this interview, Yevhenii was killed near Bakhmut: a mine hit his trench on May 22, 2023. «The interviewer and his mysterious ginger beard» — he wrote underhis frontline picture posted on his social media not long before his demise.
Friends of Yevhenii say that he lived by the values. He went for the right, not the comfortable. He fostered pups and kittens because he could not just walk past them. He was driven by what was interesting, not what was stable and prestigious. «To end all wars, so that no one is ever killed based on nationality, or any other trait, across the universe», said Yevhenii in his last phone call to his mother.
Yevhenii was a scientist and a journalist, author of multiple scientific and cultural investigations. He was a graduate student of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and he was an Oceania expert, particularly in Vanuatu anthropology. He dreamt of going on a scientific expedition there, for which he studied a rare local language. His works had been published in the «Kunsht», «Spilne», The Comics Journal, Vertigo, Yabl media, and many others.
According to his colleagues, Yevhenii was a gifted and meticulous reporter. He took deep dives into examinations of multiple layers of culture. The variety of his interests could be only matched by the depth of his kindness. Numerous subjects of Yevhenii’s papers are hard to count. The journalist always came up with creative and thought-provoking materials for his employers, like «Why people should be thrown out of the planes for scientific research», «How to break salmon’s heart», «The tribes of the atomic bomb» and things alike.
Yevhenii supported left-wing rallies in Ukraine, fearing no attacks from either the right or the police. His life’s motto was «Freedom starts with the word "no". Forbidding is forbidden». To avoid persecution for his views, Yevhenii even changed his last name from Manko to Osiievskyi (his mother’s maiden name).
Yevhenii had lived through the occupation in the town of Vorzel, and was adamant in his conviction that people of science have to defend Ukraine just the same. He had a chance to interview a sniper before joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
«When people say “you’re not fit for war”, they usually mean something good, supportive even. I don’t need support like that. People are not categorized into sorts and types. Here, people share napkins, bread, ammo, water, batteries for phones, gloves, socks and body heat. I call these people my brothers-in-arms», posted Yevhenii on his Facebook page on the anniversary of the full-scale war in Ukraine.
The reporter was buried at Dalekoskhidne cemetery in Kropyvnytskyi city on May 30, 2023.
