Vitaly “Shnitzel” Stupka is a fan of the football club “Metalist” (Kharkiv), representative of the team “Free Land Ultras”.

Vitaly Olegovich Stupka was born on August 10, 1986 in the village. Komsomolske (Kharkiv region). He studied at Komsomol Gymnasium No. 2, after which he entered the Ukrainian Engineering and Pedagogical Academy.

As a child, he was very fond of boxing, and after watching a football match from the fan stand, he decided to combine these sports in his life. It was then that he began to support the Kharkov “Metalist” in the sector. According to the memories of his teammates, Vitaly came to the movement in the first half of the 2000s. His build did not look combative, his height and weight did not encourage him to be perceived as a serious fighter. Despite this and objectively low chances of combat draws - he did not avoid fights when circumstances required it. In the sector, he was among those who broke into the hustle with “aqabas”, when there was a need to “lose” in the thick of the crowd the one who lit the smoke or formed something else. He was happy to burn the lights and smoke himself. He often managed to carry them past the “shmon” at the entrance, because, apparently, because of his physique, he was not perceived as too dangerous and was not so thoroughly searched. And he always loved to fool around, had a cool sense of humor and the “troll” turned out to be skillful.

He himself learned to play the trumpet. And so, at some point, his main hobby was music. As part of the Kharkov band Green Milk Company, he played reggae and ska, and Vitaliy himself performed parts on wind instruments. - “I met Vitaliy for the first time in Churchill's Pub, at some ska concert. I was looking for a band to play with, and he invited me to a rehearsal of NoCaps. Something didn't work out for us then, but when we formed the Green Milk Company later, I remembered the incident and invited him to join us. We immediately played and started creating our muse. Schnitz was not a very experienced musician, and often scolded. But! I was always glad that in principle he did not care about it, he was constantly working at home and rehearsing. He scolded everything, but did not lose the desire to play. He didn't care, in principle I did too, but we just played music, first of all for ourselves,” says the leader of the band Sergey.

In December 2018, for the fun of friends, he met his future wife Anna. A week later they met, and six months later they got married. They dreamed of their own home with a study room in which Anna could sew and weave traditional clothes and accessories. Vitaly had to have a garage workshop in which you could make furniture professionally. Making furniture was his hobby and extra income.

From the beginning of the full-scale war, he was engaged in volunteer activities together with friends, in particular his famous teammate Misha Kabanov. Together with another friend, they joined a small volunteer team in Poltava, where they moved with their families. “The times of joint work to support the military were incredible - there was a lot of work, but together with him all this work took place in an atmosphere of mutual assistance and support. The partnership quickly turned into a friendship. We could at any time talk about music, subculture, Poltava drivers, just drive somewhere together for lunch. But always the main topic of conversation has been to support the work of the military and what else we can do to make that support more. It was felt that the most important things for Schnitzel were two inseparable things - the protection of Ukraine and the protection of his family,” recalls Dmytro, then a volunteer and now a military man.

After six months of living in Poltava, Vitaliy and his family returned to Kharkiv, where he continued to work and volunteer. In civilian life, he worked as a carver at a forge. He also learned to carve on wood and brought it to professionalism. He devoted all his free time to volunteering: he collected on snags and took them to the guys, thermal imagers and building tools. But I thought that was not enough.

In the spring of 2024, he took up arms as part of the 95th OSCE. Served as a driver, transported the wounded from positions. And then he made meetings for his brigade and brigades in the Donetsk direction, for which he felt responsible, because he had already made friends while volunteering in Poltava. He always told about them that the “boys” came completely dirty and in slippers for spare parts. He offered them to buy normal shoes, but they refused and said that they were so “comfortable” and better with diesel fuel.

According to the memories of loved ones, Vitalik Stupka could not be known, but “Schnitzel” was known by everyone - both among musicians and among volunteers, and in general. In February 2025, he took part in the Kursk operation on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Stupka Vitaliy died on March 1, 2025 as a result of enemy artillery shelling near N.P. Mala Loknya (Sudzhansky district, Kursk region). For the next six months he was presumed missing, and only in September of that year his body was returned to Ukraine.

Eternal glory to the Hero!

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