Kyrylo "Pride" Marchenko is a fan of the "Metalurg" football club (Mariupol), a representative of the "Yunist" team.

Kyrylo Andriyovych Marchenko was born on January 21, 1991 in the city of Snizhne (Donetsk region). He studied at school No. 7 in Snizhny. In 2003, he moved to Mariupol with his family, and after that he entered the Donetsk Institute of Tourism Business (DTB). Since childhood, he liked to play football, in his school and student days he took part in competitions and was a good goalkeeper. He was interested in geography, the history of the First and Second World Wars, but most of all he liked to watch football matches.

In 2008, Kyrylo came to the fan stand of the main team of his hometown. Actively supported the team at the home stadium, and also toured the entire country with the team. In 2012-13, he made the "Golden Season", which was the last full-fledged pre-war championship. According to the memories of his teammates, he was a real fan, tried to attend every away match, getting there by trains and electric trains. He also went to European Cups and for the Ukrainian national team. He did not shy away from defending the club's colors outside the stadium when such an opportunity arose. He repeatedly stood side by side with other Mariupol fans during the surrounding football events.

Cyril's call sign - "Pride" (Proud) comes from those times. And he really was such a person, he had his own opinion and ideas on everything. Whether on the sector, in football-related battles, or in the war, he did not stand aside and proudly endured all hardships. He was one of the founders of the young football team "Yunist", which before the war managed to shine in interesting events in which Kyrylo took part. When the war broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, he stood up to defend his land from the invaders. In September of the same year, together with his comrades from "Youth", almost all of them joined the ranks of the "Azov" battalion, where he served until 2022.

Relatives remembered Kirill's story about the events during the Shyrokyn operation in 2015: - "We are storming the Separ checkpoint. We are untrained ideological fanatics from the sector who had nothing to do with military affairs. we are all wet in the mud, hungry, frozen, moving forward, with fire in our eyes and a desire to drive out the enemy."

Later, his brother Mykola will remember: - "After the assault, my brother and I decided to rest in the building on the first floor, because it was impossible to sleep in the basement because of the frost. And then my brother wakes me up, says something: they are putting a hailstone near the booths, we have to go to the basement. After thinking 10 minutes we still went down to the basement, and after another 1 minute this and the rooms next to it are hit by a hail shell. When we went upstairs after the shelling, there was no living place in that room. So the luck of the war helped a lot and we looked at it with a smile, and there were a lot of such stories and luck."

After the start of the full-scale war, Kirill did not call his brother very often, i.e. there was almost no communication in Mariupol. He was already calling from a completely surrounded city, but Mykola says that he did not hear any regret or strong fear from his brother: - "He was surprised to tell that the Russians were playing with Mariupol, he said that Chechnya was resting. Many dead civilians lie in the streets and no one doesn't take away, constant air and artillery fire, ship attacks from the sea. Endless attacks by orcs who died in packs, but still climbed."

Kyrylo Marchenko died on March 29, 2022 while performing a combat mission. He and five other brothers advanced to replace the road with TMkas. He volunteered to perform this task. On that day, the fighters came under an air strike with these mines and arms. A devoted fan from Mariupol died for his hometown, from where he did not want to leave.

Eternal honor to the Hero!

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