The rocket attack on the village of Groza in the Kharkiv region on October 5 became the largest in terms of the number of victims in 2023 in Ukraine and the largest for the entire time of a full-scale invasion in the region. 59 people died, including an eight-year-old child. On that day, 49-year-old compatriot Andrii Kozyr, who died in March last year near Popasna, was reburied here. The son of a soldier, who also served, but resigned from the army due to his health, organized everything. The whole family of the fallen soldier was at the memorial service – son Denys, his wife Nina and her mother Lyudmila, wife Andria Alina, daughter Lisa, grandfather, grandmother and other relatives. All died. Best friend Denisa Kozyra dedicated a post to him and told what the young man dreamed about.
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«Denys was born in the small but very picturesque village of Groza. A very beautiful village, it used to have 3 large ponds in which we swam and fished as children. Near one of them, on Zelena Street, we had a football field, which the boys of the entire village made with their own hands, without millions and equipment, only a shovel, wood and hands. – shares Oleksandr Dolganin, a friend of the deceased. — Since Denis’s house was opposite the football field, and the streets were compactly arranged, everyone knew Denis from his early years. Everyone was friends with him, and were friends as one big family. All of Denys’s youth was spent within the settlements of Groza, Shevchenkive and Kupyansk, where he studied to become a dispatcher at a motor vehicle college. On weekends, Denys always came to his mother Alina, sister Liza, and father, who has been working in Poland for the last few years. Father’s name was Andrii, very stylish, with his own, unique sense of humor. He wanted to meet his old age right here.
Denis and Oleksandr
Andriy invested a lot in his “old age home,” he jokingly said. Because I wanted to build a garage, make good repairs at home, and provide for my family until old age. Everyone who knows the Kozyr family can say that these people are very loyal, kind and generous. At their holidays, the tables were always full of food and drink, they loved guests and meetings with friends. Denis also always knew how to have a good time, without him it was always somehow different, as if he was the same puzzle whose eyes were burning, and he charged others with his vital energy. Since Denis’s father worked in Poland for many years, the whole family gradually moved to work abroad.”
Andriy and Alina Kozyr and their children Denys and Lisa
But on February 24, 2022, everything changed. From the words of Denis, his best friend found out that as soon as the first rockets flew from Russia towards Ukraine, Andriy’s father came into the room and told the whole family that he had decided to go to war in Ukraine, but his son did not let him go and went with him.
«Some 4-5 weeks later, after the training camp, they were both sent to the city of Popasna, in the Luhansk region. They were divided into different brigades, so they did not supervise each other. After several assaults by the Russian army, Andrii was mortally wounded, I do not know the details. The man was buried at a military cemetery in the Dnipropetrovsk region, because Groza was under the occupation of the Russian Federation at that time. Denis continued his service for 1.5 years, was in hellish places, and recently worked as a driver of “Ural”. In connection with his health, he was forced to leave the service in the Armed Forces. After his release, Denys married the young and beautiful Nina, who also lived in Grozny, but on the other side of the village. They were such a wonderful couple, always smiling, so sweet and loved each other. In their photos and videos, it is impossible not to notice their eyes and the way they look at each other.”
Denis and Nina
The couple lived in Kharkiv, where they rented an apartment that was completely covered with their photos.
«Shortly before the tragedy, they got a small dog named Duke. Since Denys had a very good sense of humor, he joked and called him “dog Duke” – a dog. It was very funny, as I remember now, we were rolling on the floor laughing.
In August 2022, part of Kharkiv Oblast was liberated from the Russian invaders, and the Kozyr family found the grave of Andriy’s father in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and decided to bury him in Grozny. I spoke with Denis 2 days before the tragedy, he talked about his plans for the near and future, which included the exhumation of his father’s body and his reburial.
Read also: “Came from a neighboring village to a classmate’s wake”: in Groza, Kharkiv Oblast, Russians killed a nurse who survived the occupation
On October 5, the reburial of the soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Kozyry was held. After the cemetery, almost everyone present at the funeral went to a local cafe for a memorial lunch. As soon as people sat down at the table, the Russians blew up the cafe with an Iskander M missile. This rocket attack took the lives of 59 people, and killed 3 generations of the Kozyr family, as well as dozens of other local people.
I have a lump in my throat. He was not just a friend, comrade, best man, he was part of my family, and this is a terrible loss for all of us. My dear friend, my brother, you are the best of people, this should not have happened to you and other people, but we do not choose how to be born and die. Always in my heart, always young, smiling. I will always remember and remember you, because you are me, and I am you.”
Earlier, “FACTS” published information about the brothers who corrected the rocket attack on Groza in the Kharkiv region: “Their godfather died in a cafe.”
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