October 5, 2023
Soldier Roman Pekozh, call sign Romualdo, was killed on October 5, 2023, near the village of Verbove in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. While repelling the enemy’s advance, he sustained fatal injuries from artillery shelling. The defender was 31 years old.
Roman was born in Kyiv. He graduated from the Kyiv Vocational Construction Lyceum. He got married and moved to Bucha near the capital. In peacetime, he worked as a freight dispatcher. In his free time, he enjoyed fishing.
After February 24, 2022, Roman and his wife left occupied Bucha for Kyiv. On October 10, 2022, he joined the ranks of defenders. After training, he served in the 132nd Separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“My mom died when Roma was a year old. Dad died five years ago. We lived together for four years before he went to serve. He really wanted me to become his official wife. On January 6, 2023, we got married. He loved life very much. He loved my parents as if they were his own, he considered my 12-year-old stepdaughter as his own. He had big dreams for when he returned, like building a house in Bucha and having another daughter…” – said the wife of the deceased, Natalia.
The reconnaissance soldier was buried at the Forest Cemetery in the capital.
Roman is survived by his wife, stepdaughter, sisters, and brother.