On the occasion of Border Guard Day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the warriors of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, honored them with state awards, conferred higher officer ranks, and presented unit commanders with honorary distinction ribbons "For Courage and Bravery."
The Head of State expressed his gratitude to the border guards for their service in defending Ukraine.
"Thousands of service members who defend our border and, together with all other elements of Ukraine’s Defense and Security Forces, hold the front. This means constant counteraction to enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups, monitoring the situation and the movement of Russian forces near our border. Brilliant work by the State Border Guard Service’s intelligence units, the effectiveness of units that work with drones," said Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He commended the active actions and resilience of the assault brigades “Pomsta,” “Forpost,” “Steel Border,” “Hart,” and the “Dozor” detachment, as well as the Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson border guard detachments and the units of the Maritime Guard, along with the rapid response border units of the Lviv, Zhytomyr, Chop, Izmail, Volyn, and Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi detachments.
The President emphasized that over the years of defending our state and people, 4,250 border guards have been honored with awards, most of them specifically for their participation in combat. In particular, 29 warriors of the Border Guard Service have been awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, 17 of them posthumously. The audience observed a minute of silence in memory of every person who died for the sake of Ukraine in the war.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded the Order of the Golden Star to the Hero of Ukraine Senior Lieutenant Rostyslav Kondrych. Last February, as part of a combined unit, he covered the withdrawal route for warriors from the Avdiivka garrison. In March, in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions, he evacuated the wounded and the fallen on foot under fire. He also led a group of border guards repelling Russian assaults and stopping the advance of sabotage and reconnaissance groups. In the autumn, he carried out combat missions in the Kursk region, where on October 17, he led a group that regained lost positions. He personally shot down three Russian drones, destroyed a machine gun position, and, together with his brothers-in-arms, repelled three enemy attacks. Despite being injured, he continued to fight and halted the Russian advance on the positions of Ukraine’s Defense Forces.
The Head of State also presented the "Cross of Military Merit" awards to two border guards. The recipients were:
Senior Soldier Yurii Pylypenko. Together with his brothers-in-arms, he stopped the advance of a 50-man occupier's assault group on the Kupyansk direction last December. Yurii Pylypenko positioned the border guards at combat positions and personally eliminated six invaders with his rifle and destroyed an IFV with a grenade launcher. When the enemy launched another assault, he ordered all available weapons to be loaded and a continuous line of suppressive fire to be laid down. The battle lasted nearly six hours, and with artillery support from neighboring positions, the assault was successfully repelled.
Senior Lieutenant Mykola Turenko. On September 3, in the Kharkiv region, he led a group that went to assist their brothers-in-arms after a shelling of their position. Despite intense fire, the warriors evacuated four wounded and one killed servicemembers, then launched a counterattack. They managed to force the invaders out and secure the position. In the next three days, the enemy continued futile assaults. The border guards eliminated 60 invaders, 20 of them were personally killed by Mykola Turenko. After his brothers-in-arms got wounded and were evacuated, the Senior Lieutenant held the position alone for three hours until reinforcements arrived.
The President also awarded border guards with the Orders of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, I-III class, "For Courage," II-III class, Danylo Halytskyi, and Princess Olga, III class.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy handed honorary distinction ribbons "For Courage and Bravery" to the 27th Border Detachment named after the Heroes of Carpathian Sich, the 31st Border Detachment named after Major-General Oleksandr Pylkevich, and the 94th Border Detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. All of these units distinguished themselves in battles for Ukraine along the entire front line.
