Melnychenko Ruslan Ihorovych was born on 12.04.1994 in the village of Besidka, Kyiv Oblast. Senior soldier, call sign “Compass” — a fighter of the “Artan” special forces battalion of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (GUR MOU).

After high school, Ruslan entered the Kyiv Transport and Economic College, where he qualified as a traffic safety engineer. He wanted to continue his studies and later obtained a bachelor’s degree by correspondence from the Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University.

As life turned out, Ruslan did not work in his field of study. At the age of 19, he entered conscript military service, and a year later, he signed a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served as a driver at the General Staff and went on a long deployment to the combat zone in 2014. In 2016, he got married, and their daughter Kira was born.

After that, he left the service and found his true calling in culinary arts. Ruslan had a genuine talent for cooking, excelling with fish, meat, and seafood. Over the years, he worked in many well-known restaurants in Kyiv.

Before work, he always managed to attend MMA training, as he loved sports. He also truly loved cooking at home on weekends, especially baking cakes for his family — they turned out absolutely incredible!

All of his free time, which was scarce, he spent with his family. On Wednesdays or Thursdays, when he was free from work at the restaurant, Ruslan would take Kira to the cinema, to jump on trampolines, or teach her how to cook treats at home. Together, they baked delicious cakes and decorated them with bees, butterflies, and hearts.

When the full-scale invasion began, Ruslan immediately decided to join the army. On February 25, he took his family to his father’s village and signed up for the Territorial Defence. For about three weeks, he still lived at home, going on shifts at checkpoints, and then departed to his duty station.

For more than a year, Ruslan fought in the Kharkiv region, including participating in the battles for the village of Dvorichna near Kupiansk. He served in a reconnaissance platoon and, as his brothers-in-arms recall, was never afraid to volunteer for the most difficult missions or go to the most dangerous observation posts. At the end of the summer of 2023, Ruslan transferred to “Artan”. As part of the battalion, he had already visited Snake Island.

Ruslan Melnychenko died on October 24, 2023, in the battles near Kupiansk, hit by an anti-tank guided missile. He was leading a group of fighters ordered to capture and hold one of the most difficult positions. On the approach to the position, the fighters came under heavy enemy fire, and Ruslan saved his comrades at the cost of his own life.

He is survived by his wife, his 7-year-old daughter, his parents, and his younger brother.