A square in the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv has been named in honour of Hero of Ukraine Sviatoslav Aleksapolskyi, call sign “Sviat”, who died on 29 August 2022 during the liberation of the Mykolaiv region from the occupiers. The decision was adopted on 23 April at the plenary meeting of the 5th session of the 9th convocation of the Kyiv City Council.

Sviatoslav Aleksapolskyi was born on 30 October 1989 in the city of Saky in Crimea. He studied in Ukrainian classes at several Crimean schools and the Crimean Republican Boarding School for Gifted Children. He was interested in history, martial arts, and weapons, was fluent in English, and played chess. He was actively involved in hiking and regularly went to the mountains.

In 2009, he completed his conscript service, and a year later, he signed a contract in Simferopol and served as a reconnaissance scout. In 2012, he obtained a degree in “Tourism” at the Crimean branch of the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. He held a seaman’s book, worked and interned under the Work & Travel USA programme in Montana, and later pursued a career in IT.

Sviatoslav was also a well-known ultra of the Simferopol football club “Tavriya” and an active participant in the Euromaidan in Crimea. Because of this, the Russian occupation authorities began to persecute him, forcing him and his family to move to Lviv. In the spring of 2016, he joined what was then the 2nd Company of the 4th Battalion “Azov”, but after the battalion was withdrawn from the combat zone, he returned to Lviv.

In 2017, he signed a contract with the 25th Airborne Brigade, and later transferred to the 95th Air Assault Brigade. He participated in the ATO/JFO (Anti-Terrorist Operation / Joint Forces Operation).

In 2020, he was transferred to the reserve and enrolled in the Ivan Cherniakhovskyi National Defence University of Ukraine. He completed a business management course, as he planned to open a centre to train civilians in tactical medicine. At the same time, he took IT courses and, from 2021, worked at Solvd Inc. He was a QA engineer on the Under Armour project.

From the first days of the full-scale war, “Sviat” returned to defend Ukraine. Initially, he conducted professional training for members of volunteer formations, alongside whom he participated in the liberation of the Kyiv region. He then joined the 126th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He performed his duties as a reconnaissance platoon commander in an exemplary manner.

Sviatoslav Aleksapolskyi died on 29 August 2022 while providing medical assistance to a comrade-in-arms during assault operations between the villages of Novohryhorivka and Liubomyrivka in the Mykolaiv region. His heroic act saved the lives of other soldiers but cost him his own. The officer was cremated in Odesa. Part of his ashes is buried at the Baikove Cemetery, and his relatives plan to scatter the rest in Crimea and Greece.

Sviatoslav leaves behind his mother, brother, and beloved partner.