"If you hesitate a split second or feel sorry for the enemy, you're gone." Hero of Ukraine Ihor Dykun

Volodymyr invites him into the house and shows me to his son's room, which he had arranged himself.

"It’s all his work," Volodymyr says.

Ihor doesn't like to sit around, so when he arrives, he starts renovating. From an early age, he was assertive, worked hard, set goals and achieved them.

"In the eighth grade, for example, he wanted a bicycle. I told him: 'Ihor, I have 30 acres of alfalfa there. If you mow it, I'll buy it for you'. And he did. It was hard, but he mowed it little by little and managed."

There is a kettlebell-shaped prize in the sideboard. There are framed awards on the table. Ihor received the kettlebell at his school graduation. Each student was given a gift that best characterized them.

"My son has been powerlifting since the seventh grade. My garage was completely filled with all that iron, different weights. One of the awards on the table is a diploma for winning a prize in a competition," the man says.

The award with the red cover with the state emblem and the inscription "Hero of Ukraine" stands out. The father carefully picks it up and opens the "book": "I am proud of Ihor. He is a good boy. He achieved what he wanted." He knows very well how much effort is behind this award.

"Never thought he would become a military man"

One of the closest people to Ihor Dykun is his history teacher Olena Shchur.

"She is like a mother to him," his father says.

"She's telling the truth," Olena invites me to her school office. She calms her excitement, turns away her eyes full of tears.

Then she picks up her phone and scrolls through the chat she has with Ihor. She says that in October, Ihor sent a photo of himself from the front: "It was cold, and I wrote to him: 'Where is your hat?’” After a while, Ihor sent back a screenshot of his hat and an emoticon with the words: "In progress”.

Olena says that at the beginning of the full-scale war, she asked Ihor to help a local soldier with a helmet. He, like Dykun, was fighting near Kyiv and lost his helmet. Ihor gave the soldier his own.

"So now another one of our soldiers wears a Hero's helmet," the woman says.

According to his class teacher, Ihor was most fond of math, history and physical education.

"I never thought that Ihor would ever become a military man. Well, maybe a physical education teacher, because he loved to play sports," she reflects.

In history, he was interested in the period of Kyivan Rus and the Cossacks, and read additional literature.

"In class, he would start discussions. He would consider one point of view, another, a third one. And until he insisted on his point of view, until he convinced everyone that he was right, he would not give up," the teacher recalls.

"Tell them you let me, dad"

Ihor Dykun changed his civilian uniform for military service in 2014. His father says that when his son decided to join the Armed Forces, his family did not agree with his decision right away. At the time, Ihor was a third-year law student at the Lviv State University of Internal Affairs.

"My family was actually against it. His aunt came and said: ‘Why are you letting him?’. Ihor called from the university and said: ‘Tell them you let me, dad’. So I bore the brunt in front of the family," his father recalls.

Volodymyr assures us that he has always believed that children should make their own decisions about their future profession. However, he was very worried.

"When Ihor chose the front, my first question was: How are you supposed to shoot? Ihor replied: ‘You know, Dad, I was going to go, it was very scary. But in war, it's either you or him. If you hesitate for a split second or feel sorry for the enemy, you're gone. If you thought for a moment, felt sorry, forgot, or chose not to shoot, you're gone’. You just have to understand this," says his father.

Since 2014, Ihor has fought in various parts of the frontline in eastern Ukraine as part of the King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade. In 2014, he was wounded during the liberation of Yampil in Donetsk Oblast. His father visited him in the hospital.

"My son couldn’t wait to see me," Volodymyr recalls.

For those battles, he was awarded the Order for Courage, III class.

In 2018, Ihor started thinking about becoming an officer. He was influenced by the example of Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel Valeriy Hudz. Under his leadership, Ihor's brigade fought near Horlivka, the following year — near Maryinka, and in 2020 — at the Svitlodarsk Bulge.

After receiving his law degree (he took a sabbatical when he signed the contract, but later completed his bachelor's degree) Ihor entered the Petro Sahaidachnyi Lviv National Army Academy. He received a diploma with honors and the rank of junior lieutenant.

His father shows a photo of a reconnaissance group. Several experienced officers and the youngest among them is his son Ihor.

"They went through all the wars: Afghanistan, others. They had experience, knew foreign languages, knew how to defend themselves. He played sports, and he was thrown here, by chance, into a reconnaissance platoon," says his father.

Won one of defining battles for defense of Kyiv

Since February 2022, he served in the 24th Brigade. From the beginning of the full-scale war until his injury, he was a platoon commander of training and combat weapons and equipment in the 355th Regiment of the 184th Training Center. A combined mechanized company was created there from various soldiers and units.

In February-March 2022, Ihor Dykun's unit held the line in Irpin. Three enemy armored vehicles of the airborne troops rushed to break through the Ukrainian defense. And then Ihor and his soldiers, armed with anti-tank grenade launchers, rushed to destroy them. With two accurate shots, Ihor damaged the Russians' equipment and stopped 50 occupiers.

But he found himself almost next to an enemy machine gunner. Ihor was wearing dark Polish camouflage, similar to that of the Russians, so the enemy took him for one of their own. "Brother, I'm one of ours, from the 141st regiment!" Ihor replied: "Here, brother!" and threw a grenade at him.

Later, Dykun said that he would not have received the highest award without the coordinated work of every soldier in the unit. In the battles for Irpin, Ihor was wounded in the shoulder and leg. On March 26, while in the hospital, he learned about the Presidential Decree that awarded him the title of Hero of Ukraine. The junior lieutenant received the highest award at the age of 28 for the defense of the capital. Now he is back on the front line.