“Shot by Russia”: Russians tracked down Kherson group of sappers from a drone and then killed them during demining
On May 6, 2023, Russian invaders attacked sappers of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kherson region when they were at a sorting center in the village. Chornobayivka. Then six extraordinary people died: Igor Solovyov, Alexander Khodakovsky, Andrei Orlov, Vladimir Pogorely, Nikolai Sholokh, Roman Kalenyk.
The head of the group was Igor Solovyov. The man was 31 years old, he began his service in Kerch, but in 2014, when the Russian Federation annexed Crimea, he decided to remain loyal to Ukraine, so he left the occupation and ended up in Kherson.
Igor had a nickname - “Neptune”, because he loved the sea very much, so he worked as an underwater sapper, trading the bottom and ships of the Second World War. In 2016, Igor Solovyov was on rotation in the ATO zone, because he already knew well what a war is.
In Kherson, the man met his love - Sofia. The couple met at work, because the girl just after her studies came to work for the State Emergency Service as a lawyer, and within a year they got married. In 2021, a daughter was born in the Soloviev family, to whom Igor gave a magical name - Adelina.
On February 24, 2022, when the first explosions of Russian missiles sounded, Igor began to gather for work, and sent his girls to their parents. However, the Russians quickly occupied not only Kherson, but also the region, so Sofia and her child also found themselves in the Bolshaya Alexandrovka captured by the Russians.
From March 2, 2022 to November 11, 2022, Kherson was forcibly under tricolor. Emergency rescue workers were on duty in the city until the end of spring, trying to help people, eliminate the effects of shelling and remaining the only Ukrainian island in a hostile environment.
“We have a blue and yellow flag constantly hanging near the part on the flagpole. The Russians will go in the evening, they will say to go down, then we lowered. In the morning they leave, and the flag is hanging again,” recalls the head of the pyrotechnic, underwater and humanitarian demining department of the special purpose emergency rescue unit of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region Andrey Kochetov.
At the end of May, the rescuers still had to leave Kherson, because the occupiers began hunting for ATO participants, came home and conducted searches. After the de-occupation of Kherson, the service of the State Emergency Service was one of the first to return to the city. People greeted them with applause and hugs, and rescuers immediately set out to clear the area of banners “Russia is here forever”. Immediately began their work on demining infrastructure, civilian dwellings and fields in Kherson region.
“On May 6, 2023, the guys had a planned departure. They collected enemy ammunition and mines, and took them to a sorting point in Chornobayivka. The Russian drone was probably following them, so when they stood together near their service car, he dropped ammunition on them,” says Igor Soloviev's wife.
On the anniversary of the de-occupation of Kherson, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine dedicates the next series of the project “Shot by Russia” to all the Kherson rescuers killed as a result of the aggression of the Russian Federation. Remember and take revenge!
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
