Antonina
Kovalenko
Fiancé of a fallen servicemember
Leonid and Antonina met in the summer of 2021 through a dating website — something they later laughed about often, promising they'd eventually come up with a more romantic story.
But their first meeting turned out to be entirely real: he was tall, handsome, and so shy he was afraid to meet her eyes, let alone take her hand. After that evening, they knew: they could no longer imagine life without each other.
Lyonia served at the 169th Training Center in Desna, rotating periodically to the Joint Forces Operation zone. Antonina says he was a different person with her than on duty, where he was known as a strict and demanding commander.
"He used to joke: if his brothers-in-arms ever found out what he was like with me — they wouldn't believe it was the same person."
Then came the full-scale invasion. For him — Chernihiv, Honcharivske, Chornobyl, Mar'inka, Mariupol, the liberation of Kherson region. For her — tears, fear, and an overwhelming need to be there for him. In the spring of 2023, he transferred to the 72nd Brigade of the Black Zaporozhians to serve alongside his closest friend. They were stationed in Kurakhove, carrying out missions in the Vuhledar direction.
Their last meeting came as a surprise — and that is exactly why it stayed with her forever. Antonina was leaving a hair salon when someone called her name. She turned around: Lyonia was standing there with an enormous bouquet and a grin stretching ear to ear. An Easter surprise. They had only a day together.
They were planning an engagement for the summer. Together they browsed ring catalogues, looked at properties near Bucha and Irpin, and dreamed of a corgi puppy and children. He desperately wanted a daughter.
On the night of May 26th, Leonid went on an assault mission alongside his closest friend Vitaliy. Both were killed in an enemy ambush near the village of Volodymyrivka in the Vuhledar district. He had told Antonina they were heading to the training ground. Their last messages to each other were about how deeply they loved one another.
"It feels as though the ground is pulled out from under you all at once — every foundation, every dream, every plan you had built together. The first funeral I ever attended in my life was the funeral of my fiancé, who would be 22 forever. I could never have imagined that I would lose the person I loved most at 17."
After Leonid's death, she took a leave from her studies and went to volunteer at a veterans' foundation. Her explanation is brief: among people who had seen war and knew what loss felt like, it was a little easier to breathe.
"When his belongings and phone were returned to us from the morgue, I found out that two days before he was killed, he had ordered an engagement ring. He never got to propose — so I placed it on my finger myself, at his grave after the burial. That ring is always with me, a talisman, a reminder of our love, and that Lyonia will always be by my side."
In time, Antonina began thinking about how to keep Lyonia's memory alive — not in stone monuments or commemorative plaques, but in something oriented toward the future, something about life.
In the spring of 2024, together with Leonid's parents and the Kyiv School of Public Administration, they founded the scholarship program "The Unlost Generation," named after Leonid Gryshchenko. The program allows active-duty servicemembers and veterans to study any course at KSPA free of charge. In two years, more than 50 defenders have become its scholars.
"He read a great deal, and dreamed of reforming the army — of making human life its highest value. When scholars tell me that what they've learned will serve them in the field, I understand: his values didn't disappear. They simply transformed."
Sometimes Antonina visits him alone. She tells him what's new, what she's planning, and reminds him that she loves him.
What keeps her going is his belief in her. She knows: Lyonia loved her so deeply he could have forgiven her almost anything. The only thing he would never have forgiven — is if she gave up. So there is no other choice: to breathe this life for both of them. And to carry his memory — radiant and undying.