Viktor Kuzmenko
Ukrainian rescuer (died 2026)
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Viktor Hryhorovych Kuzmenko (Ukrainian: Віктор Григорович Кузьменко; 1984 – 5 May 2026) was a Ukrainian rescuer and civil defense officer.
Biography
From 2025, Kuzmenko had been studying at the Kremenchuk Mykhailo Ostrogradsky National University.[1]
On 27 June 2022, after a Russian missile attack on the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk, Kuzmenko took part in the removal of rubble, rescued a fellow rescuer who was fatally trapped by a beam. In September 2024, he rescued a wounded soldier from under the rubble. In February 2025, he took part in the elimination of a fire at the Yablunivka gas processing department, where high-pressure gas pipelines caught fire. After the shelling of a high-rise building on Balenka street in Poltava, he personally saved a woman, while another 17 people were rescued under his leadership. During the fire in the village of Kachanove, for three days he led the elimination of the fire.[2]
Kuzmenko died on 5 May 2026 following a Russian double tap strike on a gas production facility in Poltava Oblast,[3] at the age of 42.[4]
Awards
- Hero of Ukraine (2025)[5]