Ukraine’s Most Tragic Family Torn Apart by Russia’s War
Yuriy returned to the apartment block to see that it had been badly damaged. Pushing past the emergency services, he frantically dug up the bodies of his wife, 28, and mother-in-law, 53, with his own hands but they were both dead. Unable to find three-month-old Kira, he began to hope that she had been thrown to safety. However, eventually the emergency services found her dead body too. Five other residents died in the blast.
Mrs. Hlodan, who had been alerted to the situation by her daughter, rang Yuriy and eventually got through to her son. “He told me that his family no longer existed,” she said, as tears rolled down her cheeks. “I can’t imagine what he must have seen with his own eyes.”
The day after his wife, daughter and mother-in-law were killed, and while collecting personal belongings from the partly destroyed flat, Yuriy described his wife to a journalist: “She was perfect, such a person could only be given to you once in a lifetime. It was a gift from God.”
In the days and weeks after the bombing, Yuriy was inconsolable. “He lost a part of himself and he lost the purpose for life,” his mother said. The funeral for the three generations of women took place in Odesa and on that day Yuriy was in a daze, overcome by grief.
Yuriy’s parents are convinced that he almost immediately made the decision to enroll in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but he spent some time choosing which unit he should join. His parents did not want him to serve because they feared he would be killed.
However, on March 1, 2023 Yuriy joined the 3rd Assault Brigade, insisting he wanted to be an infantry soldier fighting on the frontline. “His motivation was more than simply revenge: he wanted to defend his country and its people,” Mrs. Hlodan said. Her son had described Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, as a terrorist.
Dmytro Hudz, a boxing coach who had joined the military as a volunteer in April 2022, transferred to the 3rd Assault Brigade in March 2023, where he soon met Yuriy. Coming from Odesa, Dmytro knew about the tragedy of the three generations of women killed in the missile strike but he did not recognize Yuriy as linked to it.
Their unit was fighting in eastern Ukraine and initially 10 soldiers lived in a three-bedroom flat in Kramatorsk. “To start with, Yuriy was not very talkative. He always seemed nervous, agitated, stressed,” Dmytro told me.
Then one day, while on the front line, Yuriy, who was known by his military call sign of “Nabat,” confessed to Dmytro, who had the callsign of “Mongol,” about his family’s tragedy. Dmytro responded by giving him a hug and after that they were the closest of friends. “When I got to know him, I found he was a decent, open, kind, loyal, attentive man,” he said.
Both men found sharing a flat with eight other soldiers too messy and so they soon rented a small, third-floor flat of their own in Kramatorsk. They kept it neat and tidy and his friend benefitted from Yuriy’s cooking skills.
Despite having no military experience, Yuriy soon became a skilled and brave soldier. “It was interesting to observe how Yuriy grew into a warrior. He was such a good shot that he was considered for sniper training,” Dmytro said. Yuriy was also strong and fit, regularly going to the gym when he was not on the front line.
Yuriy was involved in several brutal battles in and around Bakhmut in the summer of 2023, always emerging unscathed. Many of his comrades believed that, due to a mixture of instinct and luck, he would never be killed or injured. “He saved a lot of lives in combat, dragging several wounded comrades to safety. He was also good at giving medical aid but he always had a knack of avoiding the shells,” Dmytro said.
However, Yuriy’s luck ran out on Sept. 12, 2023 when, in the rank of senior soldier, he was killed in battle, aged 31, on the day that Dmytro was having an operation on his injured shoulder. After coming round from surgery, Dmytro rang a comrade to ask how Yuriy was and he was told he had gone missing in battle and there was no chance he had survived.
It was the military who, on the morning of Sept. 15, relayed the sad news to Yuriy’s parents that he was missing, feared dead. He had last been seen attaching a tourniquet to his own injury, before rolling into a shell crater where it is believed he was deliberately targeted by a Russian drone.
Days later, Dmytro drove all his friend’s possessions from their flat to Yuriy’s parents’ home, where he consoled them over the apparent loss of their son. However, it was not until Oct. 30, 2023 that Yuriy’s decomposed body could be recovered from the battlefield and the results of DNA testing confirmed on Jan. 24, 2024 that it was Yuriy who had died.
Dmytro, aged 36 and with a dark beard, who has now left the army, still visits his friend’s grave every weekend. “I have the warmest, fondest memories of Yuriy. He wasn’t just a comrade; he was like a brother to me. He was a wonderful character with an inner light and a big heart.”
Yuriy’s father began to cry as he spoke of his son’s death: “We were desperate with grief. He was the best son anyone could have wanted. All my friends were jealous that I had such a wonderful son. He set an example to others. I was so proud of him.”
After Yuriy’s funeral on Feb. 22, 2024, attended by family, friends and comrades, he was buried in a grave next to his wife and daughter in the town of Avanhard, near Odesa, where the couple had hoped to build a family home. “Yuriy loved his family and would have wanted to be close to them in death,” his mother said.
Artem Syritka, 33, a construction manager who met Yuriy and Valeria when they were all students and who attended their wedding and Yuriy’s funeral, said of his close friend: “He was really cool. He always stood out because he was a leader. We all felt we were under his wing and he helped us become men who all looked out for each other. Yuriy and Valeria complemented each other – they were so well-suited and they loved each other very much.”
Why am I telling this story now? In August of last year, I interviewed Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s First Lady, exclusively for The Mail on Sunday. In her hour-long interview she spoke of the most tragic story of the war to her personally. She said that in the early days of the war, three generations of females had been killed in a missile attack on Odesa.
The man of the family – the husband, father and son-in-law of the three victims – had then joined the Armed Forces but he was then killed on the front line, she said. Without identifying the family by name, the First Lady described the events as “a very tragic story” and that they had shocked her “to the core.”
Shortly afterwards, I began inquiries to identify the family and, eventually, to interview those close to Yuriy and Valeria Hlodan in order to tell their story ahead of the third anniversary of the all-out war. I felt humbled hearing the full story, all the more so when Yuriy’s parents thanked me so warmly for telling this tragic tale which, in my view, epitomizes the disastrous consequences of this brutal war.
Yuriy, Valeria and Kira will never be forgotten. In Odesa, there is a street that has been named in the memory of the Hlodan family and there are other memorials for them in southeast Ukraine too.
Everyone close to the family blames one man for the tragedy: Vladimir Putin. Mrs. Hlodan said of the Russian leader: “He needs to be accountable for everything he has done, all the misery he has caused to our family and to many other families too. Regardless of how this war ends, he needs to be brought in front of an international court.”
More than a year after her son’s death was confirmed, her grief is still raw. With tears once again rolling down her face, she said: “As a mother I still can’t believe all this has happened. Even now, every day I am waiting for my son to come home.”
Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. For more information on his work, visit lordashcroft.com. Follow him on X/Facebook @LordAshcroft.
An edited version of this story appeared on Feb. 15 in the Daily Mail.
Source: Lord Ashcroft