UAF servicemember and journalist Ruslan Rudukan from Uman (Cherkasy oblast) was killed in action near Zarichne, Zaporizhzhia oblast, on 30 August. His funeral will take place at the Sofiivska Slobidka cemetery in Uman today, 7 September, Ruslan’s sister Inna Rudukan reported in a Facebook post.
Ruslan Rudukan was conscripted in autumn 2024. His sister said he had tried to enlist earlier, but was turned down several times because of his health.
“Two or three times a week, he’d systematically pack his bag and head off to another enlistment office with the boys. And in the evening he’d come back. ‘Rejected again. I’m done, WIA. Nobody wants me,’ he’d say, pointing at his legs. He had serious health problems. Surgery wasn’t an option. But he absolutely refused to just sit at home,” Inna wrote.
In the army, Ruslan served as a UAV operator. On 30 August, he set out on what would be his final combat mission.
Ruslan’s friend and fellow soldier Serhiy Suk said he had last spoken to him on the phone on 30 August.
“You were getting ready to head off to your position. We had this kind of vague, rushed final conversation. You promised to call if you got the chance. There was no contact for two months. I decided to check on you again, and called. 30 August. In the evening. What essentially turned out to be your last evening alive. I only learned that today. You didn’t pick up. And now you never will. Your big adventure ended, sadly, far too soon,” Serhiy Suk wrote in a Facebook post.
Before enlisting, Ruslan Rudukan had worked for a long time as a journalist at the oblast newspaper Pres-Tsentr, and did layout work for other print publications, his colleague, Cherkasy-based journalist Yulia Fomichova, told the Institute of Mass Information’s regional representative in Cherkasy oblast, Yelena Shchepak.
“Ruslan cared. He cared about social injustice, about people, about his country. That’s probably the reason why he bound his life to media work. He was a good journalist and a skilled newspaper layout designer, and an example and mentor for many people starting out in the profession,” Yulia said.
She aded that Rudukan had supported social initiatives, helped his colleagues, and never stood by idly as things were happening in the country.
“He could have avoided fighting because of his health, but he couldn’t stay on the sidelines of the war. That’s probably just who he was, through and through. It’s heartbreaking that the enemy took his life,” the journalist said.
According to the Institute of Mass Information, Ruslan Rudukan is the 137th media professional to die in the course of Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine.
