Zelensky posthumously awarded two underage Ukrainian partisans. Two years ago, the occupiers killed them in Berdyansk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has awarded the Order of Freedom to Ukrainian partisans Tigran Hovhannisyan and Mykyta Khanganov. They were both 16 years old when they were killed by Russian occupiers.

The decree on the award was published on the website of the President of Ukraine.

The order was awarded with the wording: "For civic courage, patriotism, selfless defense of the sovereignty and independence of the Ukrainian state, constitutional rights and human freedoms".

Two teenagers were shot dead by Russian snipers in June 2023 in Berdyansk. Tigran was shot in the heart, and Nikita in the head. Before that, the occupiers had been pressuring the teenagers for six months, searching them. Hovhannisyan was kidnapped and held in the local police station, tortured. The Russian occupiers accused the teenagers of allegedly knocking down a support on the railway track, which could block the railway connection with the city.

Before their murder, on June 15, 2023, the European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding an end to the persecution of Ukrainian teenagers Tigran Hovhannisyan and Mykyta Khanganov from occupied Berdyansk and allowing them to leave for Ukrainian-controlled territory.

• In May 2024, Lassalle Street in Zaporizhzhia was divided into two and named after Tigran Hovhannisyan and Mykyta Khanganov.

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