Vasyl-Yakiv Hryhorovych Kapustynskyi «Yakiv»
- Military rank: Soldier
- Unit: 95th Separate Air Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
- Position: Rifleman-assistant grenade launcher operator
- State honors: Recipient of the Order «For Courage», III class (2023, posthumously); Honorary Citizen of the City of Ternopil (2023, posthumously);
Biography
Vasyl-Yakiv Kapustynskyi was born on January 1, 1998, in the village of Bilyi Potik, now part of the Bilobozhnytsia community of Chortkiv district, Ternopil region, Ukraine.
He studied at Rydoduby Secondary School of grades I-II and at Chortkiv Vocational College of Economics and Entrepreneurship, where he was head of the college student council. He took part in performances of the Panas Karabinevych People's Amateur Theater. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of West Ukrainian National University (2022), receiving a bachelor's degree in «Management of Sociocultural Activities», and completed a master's degree in «Social Work and Social Policy» (2022). He was a member of the student council and repeatedly played leading roles in university performances.
Vasyl, also known as comrade «Yakiv», joined the MNK in 2017. In 2019, he became a full member of the MNK and held the position of Head of the Secretariat of the Ternopil branch, and in 2021 he became Head of the Ternopil branch and was elected to the Central Leadership of the MNK. He was commandant of the «Lysonia named after Ivan Havdyda» training camp and a repeated participant and kurin leader of the All-Ukrainian field game «Hurby-Antonivtsi».
As head of the Ternopil regional branch of the Youth Nationalist Congress, he organized patriotic training camps «Vidvaha», «Povstanska Vatra», the extreme journey «Zapovit», and educational seminars «Course of Free People» and «School of the Ukrainian Knight», in which hundreds of young men and women from all corners of Ukraine took part and later became involved in civic life.
In 2019, Vasyl took part in the youth jamboree camp “Povstanska Vatra”, which was held in the city of Unizh.
Vasyl was one of the brightest youth activists of Ternopil region, a vivid representative of the modern Ukrainian nationalist movement. He sincerely believed in the great future of the Independent and United Ukrainian State and worked every day to build it through his professional and civic activity. Now his actions and accomplishments speak in his place.
At the end of 2022, he joined the Defense Forces as part of the 95th Separate Air Assault Brigade, which was deployed in the Lyman direction. For his many years of activity and contribution to the development of the organization, as well as for his struggle for the Independent and United Ukrainian State, he received the status of Honorary Member of the MNK.
With the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he became actively involved in volunteer work and, from the first day, did not stop trying to mobilize into the army to defend our state. However, because he was studying and was of conscription age, he could not be mobilized. Therefore, he went on his own to the local Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center, where he volunteered for contract service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
After completing basic training, he was sent to the 95th Separate Air Assault Brigade, which was deployed in the Lyman direction. He served as a rifleman-assistant grenade launcher operator, but even in military conditions he showed leadership qualities and performed the functions of a group commander during combat missions. He was killed on February 2, 2023, in the city of Kreminna in Luhansk region.