Heroes of Ukraine: Border guard Roman Gakh — committed to cause and country

On March 6, Roman Gakh was killed in the Luhansk region. Russian machine-gun fire in Zhytlivka village ended the life of a border guard. For personal courage and selfless actions shown in defense of the Ukrainian state sovereignty and territorial integrity, the President of Ukraine awarded Roman Gakh the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky of III degree.

Life has always been ‘on wheels’, man was devoted to his work and loved Ukraine very much

Roman Gakh has a wife and two sons. They are sad, but proud of their father. Iryna says that military service was important for her husband. He was an honest, fair and considerate military man. They met during one of the tasks.

"It was 2005, after graduating from the National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. I worked at a local school and it so happened that Roman came to congratulate the teachers on their professional day. Then we met. A few years later we got married and had a son. Roma called him Daniel. He said it would be like the famous King Daniel Halytsky," Iryna recalls. 

Due to the service, the family did not have a permanent place of residence. They were constantly on the move, but always together. Iryna admits that her husband loved his job so much that he was less at home than at work.

"He was very devoted and responsible to his cause. Honest, tolerant, attentive, special, fair soldier who loved his homeland. Sometimes it seemed to me that he loved Ukraine more than his family," admits his wife. "But later, when I started to serve, I realized that this is a job Roman should do. He worked for the result."

In 2014, there wasn’t even a question whether he would go to war. Answer was obvious

When the Russian-Ukrainian war began in 2014, Roman Gakh went east to defend Ukraine from the enemy. Iryna says there was no question of going or not.

"The separation was very painful, because we didn't know what our life would be like," the wife recalls. "At that time, I only learned that I was expecting my second child. It’s hard to describe what I felt. But he always said: Honey, everything will be fine. He returned on March 8, 2015, and our second boy was born on March 22. We named him Vladislav. The birth of a child helped him survive at that time all the evil, the horror that befell him in the east."

Since then, the family has enjoyed the children. They thought that everything was over. But in 2019, Roman was again called up for service in the east. They went there together.

"It never occurred to me that Roman should go alone," Iryna recalls. Most importantly, I could see my husband a little more, because there were children waiting for him at home, whom he didn’t ignore, never said he was tired or wanted to rest. On the contrary, he sat down and helped with studies, gave the right men's advice for life, tried to spend free time with us. Every weekend we tried to go to church. Every summer we went on vacation to our parents. And on the way we stopped at the sea, because we wanted to entertain the children a little. Whenever possible, the whole family celebrated Christmas together. This was one of our traditions. We tried to celebrate the birthday of each of us together as a family. We almost never sat down to dinner without dad in the evening, no matter what time he came. In general, our family tradition is to do everything together. This is a real family."

In February, he said, as usual, "Everything will be fine."

A full-scale Russian invasion hasn’t escaped every military family. At that time, Roman Gach's family was at the epicenter of heavy fighting.

"Thank God, the children were saved," says Iryna. "I thought at the time that the worst thing that could happen was not to have time to save our children. I was sure my Roma will live and everyone around, too. We were safe, we talked to him that it should all end and he would come to me on March 8 with flowers and a cake. We haven’t yet had time to move away from past events, from all the horror, came the very terrible news. Not only my husband was killed, but I was killed along with him. As promised, he came to me on March 8, but not himself, he was brought in a coffin. And no one will tell me that everything will be fine. This is a great loss for our family. My husband is a Hero, because people like him are very rare. He is an example for the younger generation to understand that a serviceman is not just a name, but a great job and, above all, a person on whom the lives and peace of all Ukrainians depend. "

Roman Gach used his example to show what an officer should be like

The fact that Roman Gakh devoted himself to the work and defense of Ukraine is also confirmed by his colleagues. Colonel Vadym Zakladny has known her husband since 2002. Then they served together in the Belgorod-Dniester border detachment. Vadym says that Roman Gakh came as a lieutenant: he cared about the service and took care of the personnel.

"Since then, we have been to different parts of the border, but we met again in 2014. You know, I have never met the best officer, I never regretted that he was my deputy, Roman was a decent, educated and experienced man, he showed by his example who an officer should be, he skillfully organized the defense of the unit, engineering  positions, fire system, intelligently and proactively led the unit in various types of combat and on the march. During the combat missions, he acted boldly, decisively, and most importantly, always took care to save the lives and health of his subordinates. Roman did his job perfectly."

On March 8, 2015, there was a rotation. Those days the wife gave birth to a second son. Vadym Zakladny became the Godfather for the boy.

"You know, I didn't have godchildren until then. And something wasn't finished in me," admits Vadym. "Roman offered me to become a godfather. You can't imagine how happy I was. It was an honor for me to baptize Vladislav. This is my only godson."

When Roman died, he was on the frontline. On March 22, he congratulated his godson on his birthday and couldn’t say that his father was gone.

According to Vadym Zakladny, the person closest to him died in March this year.

"Roman's family turned out to be much stronger than I am," admits Vadym Zakladny. "On March 6, Roman died, and on March 22, I congratulated his son on his birthday. Then I was at the forefront. I said I would buy everything Vladislav wanted, but I couldn't say that my dad was gone. So today I have given my word that I must stay alive to raise his children. To give the kind of upbringing that Roman Gach wanted. Children should be proud that their father is a patriot and never forgive Russians for being orphaned."

My brother is convinced that Roman Gakh deserves the title of Hero. After all, in his last battle he took people out of the environment and saved his subordinates with his life. The battle is reported in the Luhansk Border Detachment, where Roman Gakh last served.

"Since February 24, under the leadership of Roman in cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, our defenders have repeatedly become an example of courage and heroism in the fight against the overwhelming forces of the enemy. Roman Gakh and his comrades restrained the advance of the overwhelming forces of the Russian horde in the Luhansk region. They had to keep the defenses on the demarcated front under heavy enemy fire, but despite the constant shelling and the numerical superiority of the racists, the frontier guards skillfully held their positions for more than six hours. During a long confrontation, Colonel Roman Gach received severe non-life-threatening injuries from a machine-gun fire. At the highest cost, he saved the lives of his brothers: heroically and bravely, standing to the last and looking the enemy in the eye, without taking a step back. That's how courageous border guards are defending Ukraine," says Luhansk Border Detachment spokeswoman Tatiana Letoshko.