Two engineers who blew up the bridge near Irpin delayed Russian columns heading for Kyiv
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posthumously awarded the Hero of Ukraine title to two military engineers who destroyed the Hostomel bridge near Irpin on 25 February 2022. Both died completing a task that kept a Russian armored column from quickly reaching Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posthumously conferred the title Hero of Ukraine, with the Order of the Golden Star, on Lieutenant Zakhar Kvasnyi, 22, and Junior Sergeant Roman Shymanskyi, 37, under decrees No. 1092/2026 and No. 1093/2026. Both were military engineers who, on 25 February 2022, in the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion, blew up a bridge near Irpin close to Kyiv, halting the advance of Russian armored vehicles toward the capital. Ukrinform reported the awards.
Why the bridge mattered
Russia's war plan in February 2022 depended on taking Kyiv quickly. One of its first moves was an airborne assault on Antonov airport in Hostomel, the air gateway to the capital. According to Tyzhden, Moscow committed more than 200 helicopters and several hundred airborne and ground troops to the airfield. Ukraine held Hostomel, but by the night of 24–25 February Russian ground units had reached Irpin and its bridge, and Ukrainian forces had not been able to build positions in time to stop them.
On 25 February, Russian vehicles drove onto the bridge as if on parade: five or six crossed while dozens more waited on the far side. Ukrainian defenders let them cross, destroyed the bridge and attacked. Oleksandr Dubchak, a squad commander with a separate regiment who took part in the operation, said that had the bridge survived, the occupiers would have dug in on the far bank and opened the road to Kyiv for their mechanized columns.
The two who stayed
Kvasnyi commanded an engineer-sapper platoon in the 70th Engineering Support Center of Ukraine's Armed Forces, and Shymanskyi was a junior sergeant in the same unit. Their engineer-obstacle platoon was tasked with destroying the bridge. After the demolition Russian troops attacked, and when the rest of the group withdrew, the two remained at the detonation station. Both completed the mission at the cost of their lives.
Ukrainian soldiers found Kvasnyi's body during the fighting to retake Hostomel in March 2022. Shymanskyi's body was discovered on 2 March. The decrees cite personal courage and heroism in defending Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as selfless service to the Ukrainian people.
