"I had 7 tanks, enemy had 150." Hero of Ukraine Yevhen Palchenko who saved over 2,000 lives

Every night at the front he watches videos with his daughter. Emma is two years old, she already pronounces her name well and babbles. But she communicates with her dad mostly through video.

Having talked to his family, Yevhen falls asleep soundly. He gets so tired during the day that he does not dream. Only occasionally does he dream of his family, and also of beer and dried fish. In extreme conditions, he often says: "I want beer and dried fish..." and his comrades joke about it.

Yevhen Palchenko is only 24 years old, and he is already a Hero of Ukraine. On February 24, he saved over 2,000 people and more than 1,000 pieces of military equipment that were surrounded by the enemy on the Kherson axis.

They met online

On February 14, he came home to his native village of Ometyntsi in Vinnytsia Oblast for just one day. His daughter Emma had just turned two years old — she was born on Valentine's Day.

This is the second short break of the tank company commander of the 59th separate motorized infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Yevhen is worried that his daughter does not know him. Once she even ran away from him, because in his two years in the army, he spent three or four months with the child.

All day long, Yevhen and Mariana didn't part — they played with their daughter, inflated balloons, and laughed. They talked well into the early hours. In the morning, Yevhen would go to the front, and Mariana and Emma would go to Lviv Oblast, where they live. At 6 a.m., when the train left, Mariana started crying.

"Yevhen was standing there watching us go," she recalls. "Emma shouted: ‘Daddy, come here!’ She waved her hand for him to join us. I didn't want to be separated anymore. I needed him to be with us more often."

Yevhen and Mariana have been together since 2017. They met online and communicated online initially. At the time, Yevhen was studying at the National Ground Forces Academy in Lviv.

After a while, he wrote: "I'm coming to you."

Mariana warned her mother about the guest.

"He came to our village of Yaseniv, Lviv Oblast. My mom met him and told him that I was at work. So he walked five kilometers to my workplace," Mariana recalls.

They got married on September 12, 2020.

"He is different around me — like a child. Yevhen is only so mature at work."

They simply forgot about him… on six occasions

They met the morning of February 24, 2022 apart. Mariana and her child were in Lviv Oblast. Yevhen was in Kherson Oblast. At dawn on the 24th, the alert sounded. The entire brigade was scattered across Kherson Oblast. Yevhen received a task to move to the area of Serhiyivka with six tanks.

"When the main part of our brigade approached Oleshky, the enemy was already there with equipment and tanks from the coast," Yevhen recalls. "In Nova Kakhovka, on the other side of the coast, enemy paratroopers with anti-tank weapons had landed. The preferred route of retreat was the Antonivskyi Bridge. Enemy paratroopers landed there. My task was to break through the defense and destroy the enemy, who had entrenched themselves on two bridges over the Dnipro River.  

We held the line on the right (west) bank of the Dnipro until about 11:30 p.m. It was still February 24. An enemy sabotage and reconnaissance group approached us. There were also enemy air raids, enemy artillery, mortars, and anti-tank fire.

I received an order from the battalion commander to withdraw to a safe distance near Antonivskyi Bridge, regroup, and evacuate the surviving people and equipment. When we withdrew, we received an order from the commander of the military unit to return to the bridge. It was already 1 a.m. on February 25. There was a major problem with fuel. We were not refueled. When we were returning to the bridge, five of the eight tanks stopped. I also got hit in the right gearbox.

Almost all of the Ukrainian Armed Forces holding the defense in Kherson Oblast had already been blocked and encircled in the town of Oleshky. At that time, I was in another place. Some 30-40 kilometers from Nova Kakhovka. That is, I was closer to Crimea.

And then the chief of staff asked the commander: ‘Where is 'Pisnia’?’ That's my call sign, 'Song'. That is, everyone is there, near Kherson, on the Antonivskyi Bridge, and I am 70 kilometers away. They say to him: 'He is still there'. It was the first time when everyone forgot about me.

They forgot about me at the positions six more times until the evening of February 26. They would call and say: "Are you there? Go to Oleshky. We forgot about you". Everyone pulled back to more favorable positions, but I was still there. I had seven tanks that I could keep. I managed to save the crew, but not the tanks. The fact is that I had seven tanks, and the enemy had 150."

Slapping himself: "Pull yourself together, wuss..."

In the early hours of February 25, Yevhen felt extreme fear. Sharp, beastly, cold. He was alone near Antonivskyi Bridge. Five tanks stopped in the woods. The sixth one was standing in the field with a torn-off roller. The crew members were repairing it.

The deputy commander Oleksandr Movchan called. He was crying: "Zhenya, leave everything behind and come back. You are surrounded, they will kill you!"

Yevhen Palchenko shouted: "Petrovych, I'm not going back! I am following the order of the command and I will not retreat!"

At that moment, tears were streaming down his cheeks. He lost heart. He wanted to see his daughter and hug his wife.

"When he told me this, I wanted to kill him. We were serious about fulfilling our duties. The most important thing was not to panic and to be confident in the decisions and actions of the unit commander. I was confident, but when Petrovych called, I just lost it for an hour, I felt scared. I didn't want to do anything. I was alone, there was no support whatsoever. But then I hit myself four times on the cheeks. I told myself: "Pull yourself together, you wuss, we have a job to do." We had to go out and inflict new damage on the enemy. I got into the tank and drove off. I got out at 8:00 am, although I had to set off at 6:00 am."

Yevhen Palchenko ensured the brigade's escape from the encirclement. He saved the lives of his comrades and equipment. He battled through Antonivskyi Bridge with three tanks. He had a night vision device. This was a great advantage because the enemy could only hear Ukrainian tanks by sound.

Yevhen later scolded the deputy commander of the tank battalion's moral and psychological support unit, Oleksandr Movchan.

"He said: ‘I was there hanging by a single thread, morally depressed, and instead of supporting me as a deputy colonel, you started crying’. I was very sorry to say that to him later. But I treated him as my son, I was concerned about his fate. That's why I cried and asked him to get out of there," Oleksandr Movchan recalls.

The senior lieutenant was excited to tell his wife about Yevhen Palchenko's response to his request to escape. They have been serving together for two years, but he did not think that the young man loved his country and people so much that he was ready to lay down his own life.

"He is now 24, and I am 54, and I am learning from him. Yevhen is unsurpassed in conducting combat operations and training personnel. He sees the maps, the battle area, sees the location of the enemy and knows how to get our unit moving and place our military equipment in those places so that the losses of our personnel and equipment are minimal. He knows how to inflict maximum damage on the enemy. In this regard, Yevhen is really well prepared. Many guys say: ‘If there is a commander, we will go. If there is no commander, we will not go into battle’. He gets into the tank, and the guys follow him."

We attacked and defended Mykolaiv Oblast with only two tanks

Before each battle, Yevhen thought it was his last day. With two tanks, he held the defense on the Donets bridge, in Kherson, and in Chornobayivka.

"There are no immortal people. But this is our state. The words of the oath that we stand up to defend Ukraine are not just words. Even if we read them from a sheet of paper when we swear. No one on the planet will be able to break our state. After all, we can still take back our Kuban. We just need a team and a little more equipment," says Yevhen.

I thought the title of Hero was a joke

On May 23, Yevhen got his first day off. On that day, in the Mariyinsky Palace, the President awarded him the Order of the Golden Star. Among tankers, Yevhen is the youngest Hero of Ukraine.

"People sometimes make fun of me. Sometimes they abuse it. Sometimes there is a dispute, and the deputy commander says: ‘Do you know who you are talking to? The Hero of Ukraine. Come on, calm down’," Yevhen says.

Yevhen received his call sign "Pisnia" in Bakhmut during his first rotation.

“When my dad and I were doing something together or he was doing something on his own and he did it the way my mom wanted, he would shout with delight: ‘Pisnia!’ That's where it came from," he laughs.

I want to forget the war like a bad dream

In moments of calm, Yevhen Palchenko talks to Oleksandr Movchan about everything. The deputy commander knows a lot. He used to be a businessman. He traveled almost all over the world. They talk a lot about their plans after the war.

"There are many options: reselling vehicles, opening a cafe or hardware store, exporting or importing," says Yevhen. "Every soldier doesn't want to be a soldier after the army anymore. Never again. You want to forget the war like a bad dream."

Black French manicure

In Mariana's room, there are photos of her husband everywhere. For her, he was a hero long before he was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.

"He always says that he is doing well. I ask him: ‘Tell me, I can feel that something is wrong.’ And he said: ‘Everything is fine. What are you worried about?’ But how can I not be worried if I'm talking to him on the phone and hear rockets flying? I heard the explosions. And he said: ‘It's nothing. It's just thunder’. He always tries to protect me from everything bad," says Mariana Palchenko.

After a one-day break, Yevhen sent his wife a photo of his "manicure". He asked her to do the same.

"I had to go to a beauty salon and do it like in the photo — a 'black French'. He keeps telling me: ‘Go do your nails and eyelashes. You are already beautiful, but this will make you even more beautiful’. Sometimes I refuse, saying I don't want to, but he convinces me. I liked Yevhen's sincerity and mutual trust the most. I feel safe with him in everything," she says.

Since the beginning of the war, Mariana sometimes feels powerless. Her brother Nazar is also in the combat zone. She worries about them both and believes in victory: "I realize that my husband is there and I am here. I try to understand him and support him no matter what. If I called once and he declines, I don't call again. I wait for him to call back. Every time I dial Yevhen, I dream of hearing: ‘That's it, the war is over. I'm coming to see you and our daughter’.”

Author: Natalia Lazuka