Football coach evacuates more than 600 people from bombing, but died in shelling near Bakhmut

Olena Pavlova Sport26.11.2023 13:38

Vsevolod Bodun was a successful coach and a loving father.

Vsevolod Bodun, a coach and teacher at the Yunist football school in Chernihiv, was killed in action with the Russian occupiers in Donbas. After the start of the full-scale war with Russia, the coach with the call sign "Coach" first saved lives as a volunteer, taking people out of the city that was being destroyed by the aggressor. Then he took up arms and went to one of the hottest spots of the Ukrainian front.

Football coach evacuates more than 600 people from bombing, but died in shelling near Bakhmut

The invasion of the Russian occupiers on February 24, 2022, caught Bodun in Chernihiv, where he was a successful coach at the local Yunist football school. When the Russian military began mercilessly bombing the city, and the windows in Vsevolod's apartment were shattered by another shell, he decided to move his family to a safer place - to his father's house in Borzna.

"His godfather and his family, the family of Serhiy Kozhemiak, deputy director of the Yunist Olympic Reserve Sports School, and a few other friends came with him. At that time, 17 people lived in our house. But it was okay, we have a big house, there was room for everyone. But as soon as we managed to accommodate these guests, other friends, coaches, and relatives called and asked to take them away," Vsevolod's father Rostyslav Bodun recalled to m.gorod.cn.ua.

Then the Boduns remembered that the football school still had two new minibuses donated by a former student, the captain of the Ukrainian national team, Andriy Yarmolenko. They decided to drive the vehicles to Borzna so that it would not be bombed, and at the same time to take people out of Chernihiv. But they did not limit themselves to one trip.

"People talked to each other, learned that we had helped others to leave, and so they called non-stop, from morning to evening. At first, we made lists, and then we took everyone who was going to Borznyansky district and beyond...," Bodun Sr. said.

As the rescuers themselves admitted, each trip was extremely difficult, because the usual roads through Kolychivka and Ivanivka were shelled by Russians and mined. They had to travel through fields and bypass dirt roads, which were in a terrible state in early spring and were not suitable for buses.

So they always went to pick up people in three cars. Vsevolod and the deputy director of the sports school, Serhiy Ivanovych, drove the buses, and Rostyslav Vasylovych took his SUV: he could take the people and pull the bus out if it got stuck.

As a result, the volunteers took more than 600 people out of Chernihiv, who had to find housing on their own - they called friends and acquaintances on the way who could take several families at once. The Boduns did not even think that each flight might be the last.

After the de-occupation of Chernihiv region, Vsevolod returned to Chernihiv and started his favorite occupation - training children. Back in mid-November 2022, he led the team to the Cup of the Children's and Youth Football League of Ukraine among 17-19-year-olds, and his wards beat their peers from Desna Chernihiv.

In his spare time, Vsevolod also practiced martial arts.

At the end of 2022, Bodun joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and fought as part of the 77th separate airmobile brigade, which is part of the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Vsevolod performed missions in the hottest areas.

On November 22, it became known that during a combat mission near Bakhmut, the 42-year-old's unit came under enemy artillery fire. Bodun's injuries were incompatible with life.

"My heart breaks when the war takes away the best... A hero, a man of word and deed, such a worthy son and loving husband, a kind and best father, brother, assistant, savior, coach and devoted friend, a cheerful, bright man. Vsevolod Bodun, you will forever remain in our hearts and memory!" Anastasia, an acquaintance of the deceased coach, reacted.