18-year-old cadet from Lyakhavichy Military Academy told no one, picked up his documents and went to fight for Russia. Now they cry for him

18-year-old Roman Shpak in the Russian army

Roman Shpak is the youngest Belarusian to have died in the war with Ukraine. At the time of his disappearance, he was 18 years, 1 month, and 2 days old. Even if someone tried, it's unlikely they would get to the front faster.

According to Belpol, Roman was born on June 8, 2007, in Lyakhavichy. His family is simple; his parents are a forester and a nurse's aide. At school, the boy was interested in nature, attended an agricultural elective, but ultimately decided to join the military, so he entered the Military Academy.

Roman was waiting for his coming of age (legal majority) with only one goal: to leave the country without parental permission and sign a contract with the Russian army.

"During the holidays, he told his parents he was going to work in Minsk. They put him on a train, and when they called a couple of hours later to ask how he arrived, he stunned them: 'Mom, Dad, I picked up my documents from the Military Academy; I'm going to Russia to join the army,' a family acquaintance tells Nasha Niva."

The boy had had such impulses before. As a cadet, he sometimes mused that "it might be possible," but no one took it seriously, including his family.

"He read various resources there, watched videos, and was interested in this. He also had a friend who was even more obsessed and always wanted to go to war. But that one ended up not going anywhere, while Roma did go," adds the interlocutor.

Roman signed the contract in Moscow. But he was immediately — bypassing training — sent to the front. He was very indignant about this, believing he had been deceived. But for Russian officers, it no longer mattered.

Shpak ended up in military unit 12271 (25th Army, 67th Division). This unit is known for not collecting not only the bodies of its soldiers from the battlefield, but even the wounded.

While conscious, they die from wounds, thirst, cold, and hunger, crying out into the radio with requests for evacuation until the battery dies — no one answers.

These very circumstances prompted women relatives of soldiers from military unit 12271 to appeal to Putin in the spring of 2025. Putin did not respond to the appeal.

It is very likely that Roman Shpak also spent the last hours of his life this way. The former first-year cadet of the Military Academy was sent into his last (and possibly first) "meat assault" on July 10, 2025 — a month and two days after his coming of age. He perished in that assault.

"Now everyone is crying for him," summarized the family acquaintance.

• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0