One of leaders of Plast and co-founder of Maidan Self-Defence Forces, Roman Oryshchenko, killed in battle for Ukraine. PHOTO
Roman Oryshchenko, a Plast member, historian, educator, and Maidan veteran, died at the front.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by the chairman of the supervisory board of Plast NSOU in 2018-2023, historian Yurii Yuzych.
In the Plast movement, he has passed all possible training and positions - from the founder of the branch in Cherkasy to the co-chairman of Plast.
In 1998-2002, he was alternately elected as a scribe, then as a youth advisor, and then as a senior advisor to Plast members in Cherkasy. In 2003, he was elected as the head of the Cherkasy branch (stanitsa), and in the next term – as deputy head of the local Plast council, later becoming the head of this council.
In 2003-2006, he was a regional representative of Plast in Cherkasy region. From 2010 to 2013, he was the Deputy Head of Plast in Ukraine, responsible for cooperation with state authorities and finance. He was the one who organised the renewal of the cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Education of Ukraine. In 2018-2023, he was a member of the Regional Audit Commission, for which he reported at the 16th Plast Congress after coming from hospital with a front-line injury.
He was a co-organiser, doctor and instructor of the kuren camps of the Yaroslav the Wise Preparatory Kuren of Plast Youth (Cherkasy) in 2002 and 2003.
In 2005-2010, he organised regional youth equestrian camps popular with Plast. Deputy Commandant and head of the "Dzhura" educational programme in the Zolotonosha district of Cherkasy region.
In 2006-2007, he worked at the Main Department for Internal Policy of the Cherkasy Regional State Administration. Chief Specialist of the Department of Relations with Political Actors, Public Associations and Sociological Research of the Department of Socio-Political Analysis and Forecasting.
In 2007, he moved to Kyiv, where he had been working for many years in the socio-political sphere. Starting with the position of Chief Specialist of the Eastern Region of the Regional Department of the "People's Union Our Ukraine".
In 2010-2011, he was the first deputy head of the executive committee, head of the regional work department of the public initiative "Renewal of the Country" headed by former head of the Security Service of Ukraine Nalyvaichenko (later - head of the executive committee). Later, he was a full-time assistant to MP Andrii Parubii, in particular when he was the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Maidan self-defence
Everyone knew him, but he was usually not in the news. In 2004, he was the coordinator of students and activists who came to the Maidan from Cherkasy as part of one of the youth movements resisting the dictatorship. And in 2013, he was the one who brought the first sound equipment to the Euromaidan, which was just beginning," the post reads.
In the winter of 2013-2014, he was one of the key creators of the Maidan Self-Defence. It was he who, in the "narrower headquarters" of the self-defence forces based in the Trade Unions, was responsible for the deployment and support of resistance networks in the regions. He later received the "Order of Courage" for this work. When the whole country wanted to know who had created the "Donbas" battalion, Roman calmly told them privately who and why. Because he knew him back when the Self-Defence was born.
When most people volunteered to go to the front, he could not... Too much was tied up with him in Kyiv. Later, he was kicking himself for it and unexpectedly for many people went to get a higher education as an infantry officer. The war was turning into the "ATO", and Roman was seriously preparing for a full-scale invasion.
Service in the Armed Forces
He signed up for a contract in the Armed Forces, even though he could have avoided it. He didn't want to be a "jacket", he wanted to go through real combat training. At the same time, I was developing himself and his entourage in areas that he considered critically important. He launched radio training in Plast, prepared and published relevant manuals for youth and adults. He knew the Plast method well and used it even in the army. When he was asked to become a company commander, he first trained the team, just like in a Plast camp. Deputies in different areas who would not let him down.
In February 2022, Captain Roman Oryshchenko met the enemy as a platoon leader of the 72nd Brigade north of Kyiv.
Roman did not leave the landings near Vuhledar. Once, after he was wounded, I asked him, when the medals were already falling more or less normally, whether he had received anything yet. He joked that he had nothing and did not think about it. He think about the guys. He became a company commander in his native brigade, the "Black Cossacks". He was offered a transfer to a quieter regime, but he refused. He always took on the toughest challenges and coped with them successfully. In between, he even defended his PhD thesis on the history of the Ukrainian Church.
"My condolences to his wife Svitlana, children, family and friends," Yuzych said.
