August 12, 2023
Combat medic Nikita Kuropatkin, call sign “D-6”, was killed on August 12, 2023, while performing a combat mission near the village of Robotine in Zaporizhzhia region. He did not live to see his next birthday – he would have turned 28 on September 18.
Nikita was born in the Russian Federation. When he was 12 years old, he moved with his parents to Ukrainian Donetsk region, to the town of Pokrovsk. He completed secondary school there and then obtained a profession as an auto mechanic at the Selydove Mining Technical School. He then dedicated himself to defending Ukraine during the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) / Joint Forces Operation (JFO). From 2016 to 2018, he fought in the 90th Separate Airborne Assault Battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and then served for a year in the 132nd Separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In 2019, he was discharged and spent two years living a civilian life, searching for himself in the civil world. He was involved in sports, cared for his family, raised two sons, and aimed to protect them from all troubles.
However, the full-scale war forced him to take up arms again and return to the front line. Nikita joined his brothers from the 132nd Separate Reconnaissance Battalion. He was the senior combat medic of the company and saved more than one comrade.
“Kind, sensitive, always ready to help. He loved his family very much, was a true warrior, and always said: ‘I will go to the end, only forward, and never a step back’… The memory of Nikita will live forever,” noted his relatives.
Posthumously, Senior Sergeant Kuropatkin N.D. was awarded the Order of Courage, 3rd Class.
The Hero was buried at the Smolianske Military Cemetery in Zhytomyr.
Nikita is survived by his wife, two sons, relatives, close ones, friends, and comrades.