1984–2022
Stanislav Partala
Azov reconnaissance platoon leader
Before 2014 his great passion was the Kharkiv football club Metalist. Then Stanislav Partala, call sign Metro, stood on the Maidan, joined Azov as a private and rose to lead a reconnaissance platoon, a man called a scout "sent by God". Killed defending Mariupol. Hero of Ukraine, posthumously.
Key accomplishments
- Took part in the Revolution of Dignity; in Azov from 2014, rising from private to commander of a reconnaissance platoon
- Order For Courage, 3rd class (2016) and 2nd class (2020)
- In February 2022, with other Azov soldiers, beat back russian attempts to land troops from the sea near Mariupol
- On 2 March 2022 organised the defence in a battle near Kalynivka outside Mariupol: the enemy lost three armoured vehicles and withdrew
- Hero of Ukraine (posthumously; decree No. 167/2022 of 25 March 2022)
A football fan who became a scout
Until the spring of 2014 Stanislav Partala lived an ordinary civilian life, and what he loved most was his football club, Metalist. He was born in Kharkiv in 1984. In the winter of 2013–2014 he took an active part in the Revolution of Dignity on the Maidan in Kyiv, and in 2014 he joined Azov, then a police patrol battalion, as a private. His call sign was Metro.
“A scout sent by God”
In eight years Partala rose from private to lieutenant and commander of a reconnaissance platoon. A senior officer of the National Guard called him “a scout sent by God”. In 2016, near the village of Pavlopil outside Mariupol, his group went to recover the body of a fallen Azov soldier, and the sappers ahead of them set off an explosive device. Under fire, Stanislav got the group out and evacuated the two wounded. In 2020, near Zaitseve in the Donetsk region, he spotted an enemy sabotage group creeping up on Azov’s positions in time, and it was stopped. For his service in those years he was twice awarded the Order For Courage, in 2016 and 2020.
The defence of Mariupol
From the first day of russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, Partala defended Mariupol. In late February, over 48 hours, Azov beat back four russian attempts to land troops from the sea. On 2 March, returning from laying mines on the routes the enemy might use, his group ran into a much larger enemy force near the village of Kalynivka on the city’s eastern edge. Lieutenant Partala organised the defence: the enemy lost three armoured vehicles and withdrew. Stanislav was badly wounded but kept commanding the fight and brought his unit back to base.
Stanislav Partala died of his wounds the same day, 2 March 2022, aged 37. On 25 March he was posthumously made a Hero of Ukraine, the country’s highest title; the same decree gave it posthumously to the Azov tank company commander Mykhailo Chuprin and the National Guard colonel Dmytro Apukhtin.
Why it matters today
Stanislav Partala was not a career soldier: a Kharkiv football fan, he stood on the Maidan and then went to defend his country as a private. For eight years he learned to fight and grew into a commander trusted with the most dangerous tasks. Even mortally wounded, he thought of his people and led them out of the fight. He showed that loyalty to your comrades is not a word but a choice made at the hardest moment. A street in Kharkiv now bears his name.
