Today, May 11th, is one year since our friend, Denys Antipov, died at the frontlines. We wrote about him here. 

Several events were held in his honor: today we went to the unveiling of a memorial plaque of him, in the Askoldova Mohyla park - a traditional memorial to fighters for Ukrainian independence. Yesterday we went to a screening of a documentary filmed about him. And then there was also a presentation of a scholarship for students of Korean, started by his parents, that was held at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, which he attended and taught at.

At the Askoldova Mohyla, a lot of people came with flowers to attend the unveiling ceremony. The last few days were cloudy, and there were clouds in the morning too - but when the ceremony started, the sun came out. Denys’ mother unveiled the plaque, which had his image and his favorite quote engraved on it. It was a very emotional and ceremonial moment, and many people were crying. We were surprised to see that the plaque was one of only two there - although, knowing Denys, we probably shouldn’t have been!

Different people spoke then, and made very moving and motivational speeches. First, there were religious leaders and a guest of honor - the ambassador of the Republic of Korea. Then, Denys’ friends and colleagues from the university spoke. Finally, his mother, as always, gave a powerful, emotional, and very motivating speech. And when you see her, it is really not hard to understand why Denys was the person he was.

(Photo from his friend Oleg's Facebook post)

A year ago, people were heartbroken, in pain and mourning. But today, the mood was different. People were still sad, and in mourning, but at the same time, they were very determined and angry. They cried, and talked about driving the enemy out from our land, and how motivated they were to do so, and to continue doing what Denys, and others like him, did, and to live every day of their lives to the best of their ability. 

As we looked at the people around, we felt that they shared a common feeling - and we felt this at the yesterday’s screening, too, from the people in the audience. Denys touched a lot of lives. When we saw, and heard, different people talk about him in the documentary, it was hard not to cry all the time. And the more we heard about him, the more new things we learned. For example, we learned that he translated the manual for the first Hyundai Intercity+ trains operated by our national railway - which is a random fact that we completely didn’t expect!

At the end of the movie, his colleague from the university said that she believes, truly, that he’s still here, among us, because he simply can’t stop existing with this kind of energy. She said: “He just is [here], with us”. And honestly, that’s how it feels all the time. We think a lot about him, especially when we are working, and it really feels like he knows it, and like he’s here, and like he was never gone.

Слава героям! Слава Україні! Героям слава!