The biography of Igor Kostenko is very interesting. He was born in Ukraine, received an economic education in one of the best universities, wrote many articles on Wikipedia, worked as a sports journalist. He was also an activist of Euromaidan, where he died in one of the shootings. Another Igor Kostenko is the hero of Ukraine in 2014.
Youth
Igor Igorevich Kostenko was born on December 31, 1991 on the left bank of the Barysh River, in the village of Zubrets. This settlement was founded extremely long ago, back in 1775, but it remained a simple and seemingly unremarkable village. Zubrets is located in the Buchaysky district, which, in turn, belongs to the southern part of the Ternopil region. In short, Kostenko was born in western Ukraine. But for Igor Kostenko, Ukraine was not just a country. She was the motherland.
In his earliest years, Igor was deprived of parental love and care, since his mother and father lived and worked in St. Petersburg. The upbringing of the boy was closely engaged in by his grandparents. Obviously, they were very religious people, since Igor Kostenko grew up with a strong faith in God.
Education he received
The biography of Igor Igorevich Kostenko begins in the Buchai Jesuit closed secondary school named after St. Josophat. In his graduation album, he wrote about the need for love for the fatherland and for God. “We will be Ukrainians in our hearts and with God in our hearts,” wrote the young Kostenko.
When Igor Kostenko turned seventeen, he graduated from high school and entered Ivan Franko Lviv National University. He chose the specialty "organization management". The essence of this direction was that he would learn how to manage the financial, material and information resources of the organization. According to his friends and professors, he was one of the best students of the course.
Work as a sports journalist
After graduation, Igor Kostenko went to the press. He began to work in Sportanalitika, one of the leading Ukrainian online publications. It specialized in notifying its subscribers about the latest sports news, especially football, boxing, tennis, basketball and hockey. With a bias, of course, on the sports achievements of the Ukrainian people.
Own site
But this was not enough for Igor Kostenko. He wanted to create a website not in Ukrainian, but in Russian. And he succeeded! The online edition of allsport24.com was quite popular among sports enthusiasts at the time. But alas, with the death of Igor Igorevich Kostenko, they ceased to deal with it, and now it can be bought for a ridiculous amount.
Hobbies, hobbies and interests
But even in his free time, Igor Igorevich did not stop writing and notifying people about what was happening in Ukraine and in the world. In the Ukrainian "Wikipedia" he had the nickname Ig2000.
Igor Kostenko registered there in 2011. He has written many informative and witty articles. According to some reports, their number reaches two hundred and eighty. And the number of edits that he made generally reaches two thousand. In particular, Igor Kostenko was fascinated by the topics of aviation and economics. He also did not disregard sports (he devoted his articles especially often to football), the geography and history of the Ukrainian army. One of his articles was recognized as good, which is a great compliment for every Wikipedia activist. Also, Igor Kostenko very actively promoted Wikipedia on the social networks VKontakte and Twitter, when they were still suspicious of her.
In 2014, a Wikimania conference was held in London. It happens every year. One of the founders of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, called Ukrainian Igor Kostenko the best Wikipedia activist of the year. A storm of applause ensued. Unfortunately, Igor Igorevich Kostenko simply did not have time to find out about this. At that time he had been dead for several months. Favorite football club Igor Kostenko were “Carpathians” from the city of Lviv.
Before you understand what happened to this versatile young man, you need to identify and understand the meaning of some terms. What is euromaidan? In general, we can say that this is one of the most important parts of the political crisis in Ukraine. This protest lasted for many months and claimed countless lives. But what were they protesting against?
How did Euromaidan begin?
In 2013, or more precisely, in November 2013, it was planned to hold negotiations on the actual accession of Ukraine to the European Union. It was intended that multilateral integration would deepen in the political, economic and cultural spheres. Earlier, a slightly different agreement was signed. It was called differently, but the essence was about the same: "The Partnership and Friendship Agreement between European countries and Ukraine" became the new "Alliance Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union." It was prepared from March 30, 2012, when the agreement was previously signed by the heads of delegations of Ukraine and the European Union. At a two-day summit convened at the initiative of the European Union, in particular the international organization "Eastern Partnership", negotiations on this subject should have finally been completed. It was held from November 28 to 29, 2013 in the capital and largest city of Lithuania. The Eastern Partnership represents the interests of the six largest countries of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, the Republic of Armenia and Ukraine. The purpose of this union from the very beginning was to strengthen the political, economic and spiritual ties of these countries with the countries of the European Union.
But about three months before the potential signing of the alliance and coalition agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, the Ukrainian government stopped all preparations for it. The head of the executive branch of Ukraine, Yuriy Boyko, and other representatives of the legal government in Ukraine argued that they could not agree to all the claims of the European Union until measures were taken to maintain the full protection of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Senate also emphasized that if an agreement is approved, the European Union will have to compensate for Ukraine’s losses due to the termination of trade relations with the Russian Federation and other countries that have not joined the European Union.
This is what made the residents of Kiev take to the streets and go on strike in the city center. People did not suit either the then government, or especially the president. They protested forgive the brutal social injustice.
Participant
Ukrainian journalist Igor Kostenko could not stay away. From the very first days he was an active participant in Euromaidan. When the Berkut special forces forcefully dispersed young Euromaidanians from Kiev squares, Igor Kostenko was among other students and young protesters. He extremely often visited the capital of Ukraine, Kiev. We can say that he was there from the very beginning to the end.
Death, or Victims of Euromaidan
The last time Igor Igorevich was on Euromaidan on February 18, 2014. He was one of those who began to build barricades. Two days later, on February 20th, Igor Igorevich Kostenko was shot dead during one of the most acute confrontations between the government and the people in the center of Kiev. His body was found next to the October Palace on Institutskaya Street. Two bullets were found in it: one hit the chest, the other on the forehead. Also, the bones in Igor Kostenko’s legs were broken. It is not known, before or after the death of a young man, these injuries were inflicted.
Thus, he became one of the "Heavenly Hundreds": Ukrainians who died during the protest.
"For civil courage, love for the motherland, heroic struggle for the constitutional principles of a democratic country, for the protection of human independence, service to Ukraine and the qualities shown during EuroMaidan," Igor Igorevich Kostenko posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine and awarded his family with the Golden Star Order.