Vitalii Penkin is a fan of FC Shakhtar Donetsk and a representative of "The Cartel" team.

Vitalii Tymofiiovych Penkin was born on 16 November 1985 in Sorokino (Luhansk region). From a young age, he supported Shakhtar, and in 2011 he found himself in the fan sector of the Donetsk club, where he came together with his twin brother. Both of them joined like-minded people from "The Cartel", which developed more as an around-football group.

With the beginning of the Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine and the occupation of the Donetsk region, Vitalii and his family moved to Pershotravensk (Dnipropetrovsk oblast), where he served in a military mining and rescue unit since 2015. Having offers from friends and teammates to move abroad, he decided to stay, because he associated his future only with Ukraine.

Before the outbreak of full-scale war, he worked as a tunneler at DTEK "Dniprovske Mine Administration". From the first days of the enemy offensive, he joined the Armed Forces and went to defend his native land. 37-year-old Vitalii Penkin served as a grenade launcher in a mechanized unit of enhanced firepower and was the commander of the unit. He died on July 22, 2022, in fierce battles near Apostolove. Unfortunately, the wounds received during the enemy rocket attack were incompatible with life.

Vitalii is survived by his wife and two children.