10 years ago, on March 18, 2014, the occupiers killed Serhii Kokurin, a military topographer and warrant officer of a Ukrainian military unit in Crimea. This was the first casualty among the military in the Russian-Ukrainian war. 

Serhii Kokurin joined the military in 1997, made his way from private to head of logistics, and served at the Simferopol Joint Military Commissariat until the summer of 2013. After that, he became the head of the logistics service of the 13th photogrammetric center of the Central Directorate of Military Topographic and Navigation of the Main Directorate of Operational Support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where he served until the events of March 18, 2014.

What happened before these events:

• On February 27, 2014, the so-called “little green men” (Russian military) seized the parliament and government buildings of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. 

• On February 28, 2014, the Russians took control of the Simferopol airport and began to block Ukrainian military units.

On March 18, 2014, the so-called “local self-defense of Crimea”, consisting of Russian special forces, stormed the 13th photogrammetric center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Simferopol (also known as the storming of the cartographic unit). During the storming, a Russian sniper shot killed Serhii Kokurin, who was on the observation tower of the unit at the time.

The Russians seized the mapping unit in a few hours, firing at Ukrainian soldiers with machine guns.

“We did not predict that the Russians would launch an armed assault on our unit. We are not a combat unit, but rather a research unit. Besides, there were no armed assaults anywhere in Simferopol.  The people involved [in the seizure] were armed: guns, grenades, grenade launchers, assault rifles. About a hundred around the entire perimeter of the [unit],” recalls the events of that day, AFU Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Shchuryk.

Shortly afterwards, Russian media rapidly reported that Kokurin had been killed by an alleged Ukrainian sniper of the Right Sector (and that he was already convicted) in order not to spoil Putin’s pre-recorded speech about the so-called “unarmed seizure.”

This was also done to hide the obvious fact that the Ukrainian soldier was killed by Russian special forces. This was proved, in particular, by the official conclusion on the cause of death, according to which Kokurin was killed by two bullets from a 5.45 mm assault rifle. At that time, the Ukrainian military had only 9 mm caliber guns.

Kokurin was buried at the Abdal city cemetery. The man had a mother, a 4-year-old son and a pregnant wife, Olena. Two months later, she gave birth to their second child.

In July 2014, Serhii Kokurin was honored posthumously with the Order of Courage, III class.

The fact that on March 18, 2014, the cartographers in Simferopol were attacked by regular Russian soldiers, and their so-called “self-defense” was a shield, was later confirmed by the Ukrainian military. As it turned out, the mapping center was stormed by an FSB special forces unit under the command of Igor Girkin: he himself told one of the Russian publications in November 2014. Shortly after the assault in Simferopol, this FSB unit was redeployed to capture Sloviansk. 

The story of the attacking of the photogrammetric center was the first, but, as it would turn out later, not the only one, to show that all of Putin’s and the Russian media’s statements about Crimea, as well as about Kokurin’s murder, were cynical lies. Russia started a war to destroy Ukraine. And it started with Crimea.

Over the past 10 years, Ukraine and the world have repeatedly seen that Russia is a terrorist state, that all its statements, from the President to the average soldier, are a complete lie. And that its goal was not the “peaceful reunification” (or, as the Russians say, “return”) of Crimea, but the occupation of the whole of Ukraine. 

For the next 10 years after the attack on the mapping part, the occupiers will commit many more crimes on our territory. 

And these crimes have not stopped yet. Every day we see the occupiers killing and torturing our people (civilians, prisoners of war, political prisoners), wiping out settlements, destroying ethnic groups and cultural heritage, seizing territories and poisoning the environment. 

And today it is clear that if Russia is not stopped, it will not be limited by Ukraine.