The occupiers killed a football coach and former goalkeeper while he was rescuing fighters

A 50-year-old children's football coach Serhii Chmyr was killed in the battles with the Russian occupiers for the freedom of Ukraine. The heart of the former goalkeeper of amateur football teams in the Cherkasy region stopped beating on November 8.

Serhii was born on November 23, 1972, in Zolotonosha, Cherkasy region. He loved football since childhood. He played goalkeeper at the amateur level. He defended the colors of such clubs as Spartak Zolotonosha, Dnipro Cherkasy, Lokomotiv Hrebinka, and Drabiv.

hmyr was a graduate of the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Cherkasy National University. He worked as a coach at the Zolotonosha children's and youth school and taught physical education at the local school No. 6. Another passion of the footballer was fishing.

n February 24, 2022, after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Serhii Oleksiiovych came to school for the last time in the morning. In the evening, the athlete enlisted in the territorial defense and later volunteered to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

At the front, 50-year-old Serhii received the call sign "Bear," and his friends called him "The Veteran." He served as a combat medic with the 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade. He fought in Donbas.

But even in the ranks of the Armed Forces, he was always interested in the life of the school: he wrote comments, made phone calls, and reposted all the events. "I'm canceling physics; we'll have physical education," he jokingly interfered in the school group's messenger correspondence.

And on November 8, the coach fought his last battle. Russian occupants killed Serhii when he was saving his comrades. According to zoloto.city, Serhii Oleksiyovych was a good man from his fingertips to his head. And he died when he came to the position, replacing the young men with the words: "You still have time to live!"

"The school in Zozulivka has lost its soul," commented Nadiia Maksymenko, the class teacher.

"Have I ever thought that at this age I would have to take up arms, not just a training weapon, but a real one? I often think that sooner or later there will be a situation when you will have to kill to prevent someone from killing you..." These words, spoken almost a year ago in the faraway Donetsk region by Serhii, are now remembered in a completely different way. Yesterday, Zolotonosha said goodbye to a teacher, a football player, and just a man with a good heart," politician Vitaliy Voitsekhivskyi reacted.

"Serhii Chmyr understood better than anyone that both young guys and men with life experience are defending not just some territories. He understood that today we are talking about the existence of the state," added Wojciechowski.

The football coach is survived by his parents, wife Alla, and daughter Anna.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA reported that a former Ukrainian hockey player was killed in the war with the Russian invaders, who was killed by the occupiers with a mortar.

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