"I learned that my son was at war from fellow villager". The story of Anton Hevak, who died defending Mariupol

Zinayida Hevak, mother of Senior Lieutenant Anton Hevak, platoon commander of the 140th Reconnaissance Battalion of the Ukrainian Navy, who died on March 5, 2022 during a battle with the Russian occupiers in the village of Zachativka, Donetsk Oblast, meets us at the gate of her house. We are in the village of Pylypy-Khrebtiyivski in Khmelnytskyi Oblast. There are lush gardens near every house here, so sweet plums are smoked, apples and nuts are dried in every yard. The same smells come from the Hevak family's tidy yard.

Zinayida says that fruit from his parents' garden was a special ritual for her son Anton. Every trip spent at home during the fruit season began with them.

"He would leave his backpack on the doorstep and run to the garden first thing to eat plums and apples," she says.

He appreciated good wine. When he tasted the wine his father made, he said it was the drink of life. He asked to plant more grapes, and his father planted more than 30 varieties. He said he would grow them in memory of his son.

Since childhood, he dreamed of the army

Since Anton turned 18, he hasn't been to his parents' house much. But the whole house is full of his belongings. The family created a memory corner in his room.

There are photos of his childhood and pictures from his military service. Anton's military career was decided very quickly. At the age of 5, he knew he would be a soldier. At 18, he was the only one from his village to join the army.

His parents thought about buying their son out of conscription. But when he found out about this plan, he warned them that he would never forgive them. After his military service, he joined the coveted 8th Special Forces Regiment. He became the youngest soldier there, and in 2014, he went to defend Ukraine from the Russian occupiers.

Also in the corner are large portraits taken recently. In them, Anton looks much older, serious, and with a beard. He is wearing a chequered shirt, his favourite civilian clothes.

On the wall hang knives and axes forged by him. Next to them is the uniform he wore when he graduated from the Odesa Military Academy.

"He saw officers not taking proper care of their subordinates. He said that this should be changed in the army," says his mother.

The woman adds that when she saw Anton in this uniform at his graduation from the academy, she felt wings growing behind his back. Then the son told his parents that he was going to serve in the Marines. He became a platoon commander of the 140th separate reconnaissance battalion. He was demanding but fair. He took great care of his men.

"A paramedic from his platoon, Yaryna Chornohuz, said she was very grateful to him. He did not treat her as a woman. He treated her like everyone else. And he treated everyone as himself. He could get people up in the middle of the night to train. So that later it would be easy for them to fight. They still loved and respected him for that," says Zinayida.

Next to the photo is his guitar. Anton was very artistic, he started singing early. As a child, his favourite song was about tankers - "Na pole tanki grokhotali” (‘In the field the tanks rumbled’). He could sing it all the time, even instead of a lullaby for his younger sister. Later, his repertoire changed - he would sing rock ballads for hours. Both world-famous and his own.

Talented and free-spirited

For a long time, artistry helped Anton to take care of his mother. For almost six months, he called her every day and half-jokingly told her about life at the training ground, skydiving and some everyday things. One day, when he was given leave for the weekend, his mother answered his commander's call while Anton was running around the garden picking plums.

"The commander was urgently looking for him. I asked him what happened, because he had just arrived. And it was before March 8. The commander said that they really needed him because they were going to have a concert for women, and Anton sings so well. Can you imagine, I believed him! Anton ate quickly and left. Later I found out that he had already been at war," Zinayida recalls.

She learned that her son was at war from a fellow villager. She came to visit and started asking about Anton. Finally, she said that he was not actually in Khmelnytskyi, but at war. During the next conversation with her son, Zinayida told him that she knew the truth when he told her a funny story about life at the training ground.

"He was silent on the phone. And then he said earnestly: ‘Mum, what kind of monster told you that?’ And then he kept on saying that I shouldn't worry, that he was fine, that he wasn't being sent anywhere. It was hell for me from then on, I was so worried," she says.

He loved to joke around and stage pranks and surprises. He always presented his achievements and every visit home as a surprise. The last such surprise he planned to give his parents was meeting his fiancee.

He always liked girls, but he was not interested in civilians as they did not understand him. He was always looking for someone with whom he would be on the same page. Eventually he found Katya. She was also beautiful and bright. And a military woman - she is a combat paramedic. He was already planning to bring her to meet his parents. But he didn't manage in time. So they met at his funeral.

The memorial corner also contains awards for sports achievements. He trained constantly.

"He was an extreme sportsman. He jumped with a parachute. Once he decided to test himself: they tied his hands and feet, and he jumped into the sea from a great height to see if he could survive. He liked a good challenge. I kept asking: ‘Son, why do you always choose the worst?’ He answered: ‘Because I like it. I won't be sitting in my office all neat and tidy in a tie, like you dreamed. I'm sorry, mum. It's not for me’," says Zinayida.

"You guys stay here, and I'm off": killed in action

The helmet Anton was wearing during his last battle is also here.

On February 24, Anton sent a video message to his parents. He said that what had to happen had happened and asked them not to panic. Since then, he has only briefly reported that he was fine. His unit was fighting on the Volnovakha axis, trying to prevent the encirclement of Mariupol. He did not tell his mother where he was working until the last moment. He still protected her from the details of his work.

On March 5, Russian troops began to break through their positions.

"The Russians were advancing. They had a lot of tanks. As other officers told me, when Anton heard the report about this attack, he grabbed the NLAW and ran forward to stop the assault. He hit a tank, a melee ensued, they were surrounded and shot with a machine gun. He was still alive, conscious, even joking. He said: ‘You guys watch here, hold on, and I'm off’. He died of blood loss," says Zinayida.

10 days later, her son's body was brought home. When she saw that her Anton, always so quick and agile, was being carried by others, an almost animalistic scream escaped her chest.

"Those cars are coming down the street, carrying my Anton. All the people here were on their knees, and they are just carrying him. It was like I was torn into five pieces when I saw that he was not walking. And he was always so nimble, he kept running and running," she says.

For Zinayida, her son is still with her. She continues to feel his presence and talks to him. When she comes to visit her son's grave, she always plays his voice messages. The ones where he says that everything is fine, he is alive and well. She hugs Anton's grave so tightly that he seems to be trying to dissolve into it. And she cries. A cry of pain that tears you to pieces from the inside.

She says that she visits his grave infrequently and always with someone else with her. She is afraid that otherwise she would not have the strength to return from the cemetery.

She is learning to live without him. Her husband, daughter, and her newborn son help her through her own grief.

"Everyone tells me that I have to live on. I need to live for him, for my son, so that he can see that I am happy, that I am not crying. He didn't like it when people mourned the dead. He said it was better to play the guitar and sing a song. But it's very hard," says Zinayida.

The text was prepared by the platform Memorial, which tells the stories of civilians killed by Russia and fallen Ukrainian soldiers, exclusively for hromadske. To report data on Ukraine's losses, fill out the forms: for fallen military and civilian victims.

Zinayida Hevak's story is one of the stories in the film Everything is Fine, Mom, created by the Memorial platform. The full version of the film can be viewed here.

Author: Yevheniya Mazur