1988–2022
Valerii Chybinieiev
Sniper and intelligence officer, Hero
After 2016, billboards in Berdiansk read “Be like Valera”. Valerii Chybinieiev, who grew up in a boarding school, commanded a sniper company of the 79th Air Assault Brigade and became a Hero of Ukraine. He was killed near Hostomel in 2022.
Key accomplishments
- Commander of a sniper company in the 79th Separate Air Assault Brigade
- Fought at Lyman, in the defense of Donetsk airport and at Avdiivka (2014–2016)
- Hero of Ukraine with the Gold Star order (decree No. 348/2016)
- Officer of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (HUR), took part in the defense of the Kyiv region in 2022
“Be like Valera”
After 2016, billboards reading “Be like Valera” went up in Berdiansk. It was the city’s way of honoring Valerii Chybinieiev, who had just received the Gold Star of a Hero of Ukraine.
Valerii was born in 1988 in Berdiansk. He and his younger brother Roman grew up in the local boarding school, and from early childhood he dreamed of being an airborne scout. To get into the Zakhysnyk military lyceum in Zaporizhzhia, he worked on his English by himself, day and night. He went on to study at the Odesa Military Academy and then at the Army Academy in Lviv, graduating in 2010.
Commander of the snipers
That same year Chybinieiev joined the 79th Separate Air Assault Brigade in Mykolaiv, and when the brigade formed a sniper company, he was put in charge of it. From 2014 he fought in the east: he helped liberate Lyman, fought near Biriukove and Izvaryne in the Luhansk region and defended Donetsk airport. In 2016 near Avdiivka he was hit by shrapnel but kept commanding his unit. On 23 August 2016 Captain Chybinieiev was made a Hero of Ukraine, and the President presented him with the Gold Star at the Independence Day parade on Khreshchatyk.
Later Chybinieiev moved to the Defence Intelligence Directorate. After the full-scale invasion began, his sniper group fought for Hostomel. Lieutenant Colonel Valerii Chybinieiev was killed there on 3 March 2022, his 34th birthday.
How he is remembered
He was buried at Berkovetske Cemetery in Kyiv, next to his brother Roman, who was killed at the front in 2019. Valerii is an honorary citizen of Zaporizhzhia and Berdiansk.
