"War takes the best": Associate Professor of the Institute of Postgraduate Education Oleksii Halionka was killed in a Russian strike on Chernihiv. Photo

During a missile attack on Chernihiv on January 3, Russia killed Oleksii Halionka, an associate professor of the Department of Philological Disciplines and Methods of Teaching at the Chernihiv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education named after Ushynskyi. The 72-year-old man died of a shrapnel wound to the head in his own yard.

In March 2022, Russian shells destroyed his house, and in January 2025, they took his life. The name of the deceased Chernihiv resident was named by journalists of Suspilne. Chernihiv" journalists.

The information about the death of Oleksii Halionka was confirmed to Suspilne by Anatolii Zaliskyi, the rector of the institute where the deceased worked.

"Unfortunately, it is true. I received a call from Oleksii's niece, Liudmyla Halionka, who told me about it. He was still at work today (January 3 – Ed.). He is a candidate of pedagogical sciences. He has been working part-time lately," he said.

The journalists also talked to the 72-year-old teacher's niece. Liudmyla Halionka said she had been talking to her uncle on the phone 20 minutes before the attack. The woman does not know why he went out into the yard, where he was fatally wounded, Suspilne reports.

Ukrainian poet Anatolii Dnistrovy said that back in March 2022, Russia took away Oleksii Halionka's house.

"As a result of a triple missile strike on the outskirts of Chernihiv, a friend of my late father, Honored Educator, philologist, and associate professor at the Chernihiv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education named after Ushynskyi, Oleksii Halionka, has died today. I remember him from the early 90s-an aesthete who loved Ukrainian poetry and often quoted his favorite poems by our classics. My father and I often came to visit him. We used to swim together in the Desna River. In his house, which stood near the Chernihiv airfield, there was a luxurious art room with paintings, a collection of embroidered shirts, and more than 4,000 books. That house was bombed by the army of the dead in March 2022, and seventy-year-old Oleksii Halionka lived there for the last few years with his animals-Cleopatra the heifer, cats, and dogs. RIP," he wrote.

On March 22, 2022, the teacher's house burned to the ground after being hit by Russian shells. After that, he lived in a summer kitchen and dreamed that he would one day rebuild his home.

Online, people write about Oleksii Halionka as a "bright and devoted man of science" and a "teacher from God" and state that the war takes the best.

"Thank you, great Man, for your deep heart, wise advice, kind eyes, and the opportunity to work with you, our Methodist and Mentor. The memory of you will always live in my heart," Olena Tarukhno wrote.

Vasyl Chepurnyi, editor-in-chief of Sivershchyna, also remembers the deceased.

"He lived alone in a private neighborhood. I knew him as a man in love with flowers, which he grew himself, as a good owner (he used to keep two cows!), as a lover of drama... As a very calm and friendly person. They say he was alive after the first hit, but they hit him with the third missile. The chief physician of Hospital 2, Kukhar, said that the cause of death was a shrapnel wound to the head, incompatible with life," he wrote.

As a reminder, the day before, on January 3, Russia fired ballistic missiles at Chernihiv. A residential area on the outskirts of the regional center was hit. Russian missiles flew into the city three times: at 16:20, 16:37, and 16:51.

The attack destroyed two private houses, killed one person, and wounded five others.

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