On September 26, the event “I respect soldiers – I run for Heroes of Ukraine” took place in Lutsk. More than 300 people took part in the event to remind once again about the events that are still taking place in the east of our country.

On September 26, the event “I respect soldiers – I run for Heroes of Ukraine” took place in Lutsk. More than 300 people took part in the event to remind once again about the events that are still taking place in the east of our country.

It is worth noting that there were no restrictions for participants, and therefore, a rather symbolic distance of 1200 meters was overcome by both children and adults.

The participants of the race went to Theater Square in a group – some of them with their families, and some with teams of different organizations and sports teams. Border guards of Lutsk BG Detachment also took part in the all-Ukrainian patriotic race.

As the head of the Department for Youth and Sports of the Volyn Regional State Administration Ihor Dmytryshyn noted: “Every athlete runs for a certain hero, our Volyn resident. We have 227 fallen soldiers and just over 300 registered participants. Everyone could choose a hero for whom he will run the distance. It is nice to see many border guards here. Especially since two of their colleagues – Serhii Huliuk and Serhii Kyrychuk sacrificed their lives to preserve the territorial integrity of our Motherland”.

At the beginning of the event, the audience sang the National Anthem of Ukraine, observed a minute of silence in honor of the fallen soldiers and laid flowers to The Heavenly Hundred Heroes Monument.

Of course, the main purpose of the race was not to overcome a short distance, but to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for our country. These words were confirmed by the border guard lieutenant colonel Vasyl Salivonchyk: “Today I ran not for myself, but for my guys who died in the area of anti-terrorist operation / Joint Forces Operation. First of all, they are fellow border guards Serhii Huliuk and Serhii Kyrychuk, as well as many comrades-in-arms. I ran this distance for all those who sacrificed their lives for our Ukraine.”

Also, the event was joined by a border guard, master of sports and world champion in kickboxing, Sofia Domanska. “My emotions are fantastic, because this is the first race in which I participated. Before that, I heard from my sports friends and colleagues at work about such events. As for my number, I ran for Serhii Huliuk, a border guard who died in the fighting zone in 2014. You know, it's very scary when colleagues talk about their places of service, fighting in combat operation. Many servicemen got into terrible situations and fought for their lives. It always causes “goosebumps”, it becomes scary and we do not want it to be in our country. We want the war to end in our country,” Sofia said sincerely.

In fact, for more than 6 years our Motherland has been forced to defend its integrity from the invaders, sacrificing its best sons’ and daughters’ lives. They must not be forgotten because without them there would be no country. The idea of transferring the names of fallen soldiers to numbers in the race once again reminds us that heroes do not die – enemies die.