Kyrylo Kyrylovych Veres is a lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, commander of the 20th separate regiment of unmanned aerial systems “K-2”.
Place of Birth, Education
Born in 1989.
In 2010, he received a master’s degree in Banking at the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management.
Career
At the age of 20, he served as development director at the nudist beach “Dovbychka” on Trukhanov Island.
Military service
In 2014, he began his service as a reconnaissance officer in the police battalion “Kyiv-1” in Sloviansk, and a year later he moved to the counterintelligence of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). In the same year, together with Viktor Nikolyuk, he detained Russian soldiers, who were later exchanged for Nadiya Savchenko. During the operation, junior sergeant Vadim Pugachev was killed.
During 2016, Veres served in the 92nd Brigade, where he served as deputy commander.
Since February 2022, he served as commander of the K-2 battalion as part of the 54th separate mechanized brigade and was responsible for defense in the direction of Soledar – Siversk.
In March of the same year, against the backdrop of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation (RF), he organized the defense of Maryinka in the Donetsk region. Under his leadership, Ukrainian soldiers stopped the advance of Russian units on the southeastern outskirts of the city, destroying two tanks and two infantry fighting vehicles. As a result of the attack by the numerically superior enemy forces, in order to preserve personnel and align the front line, it was decided to retreat to the second defensive position.
The next day after the withdrawal of the units under the leadership of Veres, a counteroffensive was organized by the forces of combined mechanized battalions. The operation ended successfully – the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) managed to regain control over the positions that had previously had to be abandoned.
On December 8, 2024, Veres announced the transformation of the K-2 battalion he leads into the 20th separate regiment of K-2 unmanned systems.
Awards
In 2015, he received the Order of the People’s Hero of Ukraine, and in 2017 he was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, III degree. The next year – the medal “For Military Service to Ukraine”.
Other awards include:
- 2019 – Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, II degree;
- 2020 – Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, I degree;
- 2022 – the title of Hero of Ukraine (Order of the Golden Star);
- 2023 – Cross of Military Merit.
