Story of fallen Patriot chief engineer Denys Sakun, credited with over 120 downed enemy missiles. PHOTOS
In his final years, Denys Sakun served as chief engineer of an air defense missile unit operating the Patriot system, protecting the skies over Kyiv and the wider region. In December 2024, the Ukrainian defender tragically died while saving military equipment during a fire.
This is stated in the article by hromadske, Censor.NET reports.
Denys was one of the first Ukrainians to master the Patriot during training in the United States
Denys was a career officer, originally from Luhansk. That is where he witnessed the outbreak of war in 2014. His parents refused to leave, but he could not remain under occupation. Russian fighters were already manning the checkpoints, and he, then a major, left with nothing more than a vest and a T-shirt. He didn't even pack his toothbrush.
His wife, Yana Sakun, recalls: "When he was leaving, at one of the checkpoints he ran into a former subordinate who had switched sides to the separatists. That man started with, ‘I wish you…’ and then stopped. Because Denys had always been such a great commander, even that guy respected him and let him through, never saying a word about Denys being a serviceman. That story gives you chills. Even when someone betrays their country, out of respect, he didn’t turn him in," she said.
Photo: Hromadske media outlet
Denys moved to Kyiv, where he continued his service, but in 2015 he left the military for health reasons. He became an IT specialist and later started his own business.
Yana recalls that, according to Denys, he did not want to be associated with the service at all, and his parents sent him to a military lyceum.
"He always said: "I will never go back there!". But a full-scale war broke out. On the 24th, he took us to a safe place, and on the 25th he went to the military registration and enlistment office," she says.
Denys joined the air defense forces, initially serving on an S-300 system in the Kyiv region and deploying to various regions. In January 2023, he traveled to the United States with the first group of servicemen to train on the Patriot system.
Photo: Hromadske publication
After returning to Ukraine, Denys became commander of an engineering unit and later chief engineer of the Patriot air defense system. His widow believes the position was created specifically for him, as he had "outgrown every possible scale."
He began training military engineers, with everyone working on the Patriot having "gone through Denys." He was also responsible for keeping the systems operational. Yana recalls her husband’s stories of having to repair Patriot systems with improvised tools due to delays in spare parts deliveries.
The first downed "Kinzhal"
Denys also went on temporary duty to different regions of Ukraine to repair Patriot systems. Later, those systems were able to shoot down Russian aircraft in areas where such interceptions had previously been impossible.
During one of his combat shifts, thanks to the equipment he had set up, Ukrainian forces for the first time in history downed a Russian Kh-47M Kinzhal missile.
"Later, this very system brought down three Russian Su-34s — in areas where it had previously been impossible. He stayed awake for a full day, operating everything himself… That was the period when we were all counting the downed Su. Three of them were practically thanks to Denys," his wife recalled.
Dogs became a rehabilitation for Denys after heavy fighting
Yana and Denys met on a dating site. She said what caught her attention were the dogs in all his photos — four Siberian huskies.
Deni was the first to appear in the defender’s life. Then Denys took in Oggy, another husky abandoned by its owners, and couldn’t bring himself to give the dog away after fostering. When he later bought a house in Irpin, he wanted his own "sled team," so he got two more huskies — Wind and Chazy.
Later, the family got a fifth dog, Arnie the Doberman.
For Denys, dogs were his rehabilitation. Yana says that he is a soldier who served in the ATO, lost his home in Luhansk and two marriages, and at some point was left alone in a newly purchased house with bare walls and "the baggage of trauma".
Dogs are what restored him. And I always supported him in this, because I saw how much he needed it. He had a lot of this adrenaline.
The death of Denys Sakun
On December 19, 2024, Yana spoke to Denys on the phone for the last time. He was due to come home the next day, and she had planned to buy him something tasty and spend a cozy evening together. But that night, a massive shelling took place.
Yana woke up to explosions and first checked that the dogs were safe. She did not try to call her husband, convinced that "Denys was simply indestructible, it was impossible to kill him." Later, however, her close friend wrote to her saying that Denys was not responding to messages. Yana contacted his comrades and learned the tragic news.
"She said, ‘Listen, can you call the guys to find out what’s going on? I can’t get through.’ He called me back and said, ‘Yana, Denys… that’s it. Denys is gone,’" Yana recounted.
Denys Sakun died in the line of duty, heroically saving equipment during a fire.
"He fought to his last breath. He knew that saving the equipment meant saving tens of thousands of lives. He’s credited with over 120 downed missiles. And as long as those systems keep working, they keep saving lives. Those people are alive because they’re there," his wife stressed.
Yana handled her beloved’s funeral. Denys’s death was a devastating loss for her.
According to Yana, their dogs became her greatest support; they, too, felt the loss and struggled with it.
Even nine months after Denys’s death, the dogs still wait for his return and react to every passing car.
Life after loss
After her husband’s death, Yana got the same tattoo Denys had, and also had his portrait inked.
Since Denys’s passing, she has been tending the trees and flowers he planted. Nearly every year on Yana’s birthday, Denys would give her flower seedlings and then take care of them himself.
Yana dreams of someday creating her own therapeutic garden for veterans, where each planted plant will be dedicated to a specific fallen soldier. The garden will be called Chief Garden. Chief is Denys's call sign.
"Many people ask me how he could have died in Kyiv, as if it were the ‘deep rear.’ I got my husband back in pieces and buried him in a closed coffin. What ‘deep rear’ are we talking about?" Yana said.
Now the woman is collecting signatures for a petition to award Denys the title of Hero.
