In the top left corner photo Ihor Tkachuk is celebrating his 37-th birthday with his family. He was killed during one of the attacks on EuroMaidan protesters in Kyiv in February, 2014. We transferred $500 to support his family. On Tuesday, February 18th, 2014, as the situation in Kyiv was becoming dramatic he couldn’t watch the events on the TV, he couldn’t eat nor drink. He kept saying he had to be there, – Maria, Ihor’s 35 year old widow is telling us. She was begging him not to go and he replied: Do you think I am going there to die? I have young children to live for!
The final decision was made and off he went with his friend Yura. When the attack was announced he ran outside the Ukrainian House where they were staying in a light shirt and pants, only managing to grab the helmet. That’s how he was found later, shot in the temple. Maria is left with three children, Eugene, 17, Ivanna, 12, and Denis, 1 year old. They live in a small two-room wooden house, smeared with clay on the edge of Velika Kamenka village, Kolomiyskiy district, Ivano-Frankivsk Region.