In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Prokopenko rose to renown most notably distinguishing himself as a leader of the resistance defending the Ukrainian Hero City of Mariupol amid the devastating Siege of Mariupol by Russian Armed Forces, who have besieged the city since invading the country on 24 February. For his heroic leadership role on the frontlines of the conflict, he was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine in March 2022.[5][6]
“It feels like I continued the same war, only on another section of the front, a war against the occupation regime of the Kremlin. My grandfather had such a terrible hatred for communism, for Bolshevism, for the Sovok… Can you imagine what it's like to lose your family? I mean, all his brothers perished, his kinfolk…”
Since 2014, he has participated in anti-terrorist operations in the east of Ukraine, taking command of a platoon and a company in the Azov Battalion in September 2017.[4] In a July 2016 interview, Redis described the improvement in military capabilities he oversaw in his troops: “Our mission is to build a new kind of army. Although we lost a lot of experienced guys from the old squad, we've grown in quantity and quality. Discipline and combat efficiency have improved. We used to run with injuries and sawn-off shots; now we have opportunities to work with tactical tank groups, armored vehicles, artillery support. We gradually developed our military science doctrine—starting with practice, not theory. In the course of training and fighting, the lads mastered tactics and small arms proficiency. Many new possibilities opened for us: we can operate independently on the frontlines, free of other subunits that constantly let us down in combat operations.”[7][9]
On 19 March 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded the title Hero of Ukraine to the commanders of two units that continue,[when?] to lead heroic defense of Mariupol: Prokopenko and the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade, Lt. Col.Volodymyr Baranyuk [uk; ru]. Major Denis Prokopenko received the highest honor “for bravery, for effective tactics to repel enemy attacks, and for protection of the hero city of Mariupol.”[6][8]
On 12 April 2022, Prokopenko appeared anew in a video message, to report on charges that Russian chemical weapons had been dropped onto Mariupol in a drone attack: “yesterday the occupiers used a poisonous substance of unknown origin against military and civilians in Mariupol. The epicenter of the attack was not near the people, so contact with the substance was minimal, which possibly saved lives—but there are still consequences. Currently it's impossible to find out what substance poisoned people, because we are under complete blockade, and the site of the attack is under fire by the Russians to hide evidence of their crime.” Regardless of the sudden international focus on the chemical attack, he went on emphasize that thousands of civilians in the city had been killed and continued to be slaughtered by constant ongoing Russian airstrikes, naval bombardment, heavy flamethrower systems, artillery, and phosphorus munitions.[13]
^Russian: Ре́дис, romanized: Rédis, IPA:[ˈrʲedʲɪs] (proper noun with stress on the first syllable—thus, contrary to some mistranslations, contrastive with реди́с, redís, 'radish', which is stressed on the final syllable)
Ukraine
Major
Azov Regiment
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