Igor Kostenko is a fan of the football club “Karpaty” (Lviv).
Igor Igorovich Kostenko was born on December 31, 1991 in the village of Zubrets (Buchach district, Ternopil region). He studied at Zubrec Secondary School, after which he studied for two years at the Buchach Collegium named after St. Josephata is an institution with an in-depth study of history and Christianity. When it came time to choose an educational institution for higher education, almost no one doubted that it would be Lviv. The young man really liked this city, about which he read a lot, and eventually entered the geography faculty of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.
After moving to Lviv, Igor actively supported the local FC “Karpaty” at home and away matches, was in the fan sector, but was not part of any of the surrounding football teams. In 2009, he joined the All-Ukrainian Brotherhood of Soldiers of the OUN-UPA named after General Choronic Roman Shukhevich. Igor's friends and family would later recall that he was a true patriot of Ukraine long before the start of the Revolution of Dignity and the events that preceded it. He loved the culture of his country very much, worried about the future of the state and felt its pain.
He combined his studies at the university with work as a journalist in the online publication “Sportanalytika”. He was the initiator of the creation of the Ukrainian-language sports internet publication allsport24.com, the appearance of which was delayed due to the participation of its developers in the events of the Maidan. He was an active editor of the Ukrainian Wikipedia (he wrote under the nickname Ig2000). In the two and a half years of participation, he created more than 280 articles. Igor wanted Ukraine to follow the European path of development, and therefore he was very indignant about the step back from this direction, chosen by the then criminal authorities of the country.
From the very beginning of the protests in the capital, he was an active participant in them. He repeatedly traveled to the Maidan, was there on the night of November 30, 2013, when the “golden eagles” violently dispersed students. During the events in the center of the capital, Igor did not belong to any individual organization or hundreds, wishing to be restricted in his freedom of action. He was looking for work and helping himself where there was not enough free hands. He was on the Maidan and on the eve of the first murders (Yuriy Verbytsky and Serhiy Nigoyan), and soon after, he and other Lviv residents went home.
The next time they were already encouraged to go to the capital by news from the Maidan, where fierce confrontations with the security forces and new killings of the participants of the revolution took place. Igor, along with two comrades, arrived at half past noon on the first night of February 19, and the next night they went to the building of the Moscow State Administration. On the morning of February 20, he was going to help with the erection of barricades, when suddenly it was reported that the “golden eagles” began to retreat and people went on the offensive. Igor Kostenko died from a bullet wound in the heart area, his body was found near the October Palace on Institutskaya Street, and later transferred to St. Michael's Cathedral.
On February 23, 2014, Igor was buried in his native village of Zubrets in the Buchach region. Thousands of people accompanied the Hero's body on the way to the last earthly refuge, farewells were held in many cities of Ternopil region. On February 18, 2015, on the wall of the Buchach Collegium named after St. Josaphat, a memorial plaque was opened to his student - Igor Kostenko. Also in the village. Zubrets was renamed the street on which he lived. On November 21, 2014 he was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine with the award of the Order “Golden Star” (posthumously).
