On January 26, Mikhail Zhyzneuski, a citizen of Belarus and one of the first victims of violent crime during the protests on Kyiv’s Maidan in 2014, would have turned 32 years.
On Sunday, a memorial event was held in his honour in the Ukrainian capital. The participants gathered near the monument to Princess Olga; then the column marched to Independence Square. The people were carrying the flags and chanting ‘Glory to Ukraine!’ and ‘Long Live Belarus!’
Armenian Sergei Nigoyan and Belarusian Mikhail Zhyzneuski became the first defenders of Euromaidan killed by pro-Yanukovych snipers who were dispersing protests on January, 22. Zhyzneuski was only four days shy of his 26th birthday when he was shot in the heart.
In June 2017, the then Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to Mikhail Zhyzneuski. In 2016, Ukraine’s Ministers Cabinet took the decision to pay a lifelong stipend to his parents. In November 2017, a monument to the hero of the Heavenly Hundred was opened in Hrushevsky street.
