Wikipedian Ihor Kostenko dies on the Maidan

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Ігор Костенко

February 20, 2014, during the protests in Kiev, Ihor Kostenko – an active contributor to the Ukrainian Wikipedia, journalist and geography student – died tragically.
Ihor Kostenko was born December 31, 1991, in the village of Zubrets in the Buchach region of Ternopil. After graduating from high school, he attended Ivan Franko University in Lviv, where he was in his fifth year of study in the department of geography, majoring in Organizational Management. In addition to his studies, he worked as a journalist for the publication “Sports Analysis.”
Ihor was an active contributor to the Ukrainian Wikipedia, writing under the username Ig2000. Ihor registered an account on July 23, 2011, and in just that first month began writing his first articles. In two and a half years, he wrote over 280 articles and made over 1,600 edits. He had a wide range of encyclopedic interests – he wrote articles on sports topics (soccer, Formula One), geography, economics, and the history of the Ukrainian military. His article on the destroyer Nezamozhnyk of the Ukrainian and Soviet navies in the first half of the 20th century was acknowledged for its quality by the community and achieved the status of “Good article.” Additionally, he contributed many updates on sports events to Wikinews.
Ihor was also active in promoting Ukrainian Wikipedia on social media, through which he sought to gain more contributors. He was an administrator of the Ukrainian Wikipedians Facebook page, where he regularly posted interesting facts from Wikipedia. In August 2013 he proposed hosting a Wiki Flashmob – inviting a large group of Ukrainians to participate in a day of article-writing on Wikipedia. The Wiki Flashmob was planned for January 20, 2014, the 10-year anniversary of Ukrainian Wikipedia, but due to the tragic events in the country, the event was cancelled. Ihor believed that the flashmob would help fill Wikipedia with thousands of new articles in the course of a day and proposed a strategy to realize his dream, but unfortunately, he did not live to see it become a reality.
On February 18, 2014, along with other students from Lviv, Ihor came to Kiev to the Euromaidan, because he wanted Ukraine to be led by people with a patriotic spirit. On February 20th, during a protest on Instytutskaya Street, Ihor died tragically: he bravely went ahead with a shield, but he was shot by two bullets, one of which struck him in the head…

Wikipedia-logo-v2-uk-with black mourning ribbon.png

Yesterday, February 23, Ihor was buried in his home village near Buchach. Thousands of people accompanied him on his final journey – both students from Lviv and residents of Ternopil Oblast.
In honor of Ihor and the tens of others who died on the Euromaidan, on February 21, the community decided to modify the logo of the Ukrainian Wikipedia with a black ribbon as a symbol of mourning.
The editors of Ukrainian Wikipedia and Wikimedia Ukraine offer their condolences to the friends and family of Ihor Kostenko. A page has been created on Wikipedia where you can leave your condolences.
Memory eternal…
In the name of the Ukrainian Wikimedia community:
Mykola Kozlenko, Wikimedia Ukraine

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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Very sad news. This article has been also translated to czech: http://blog.wikimedia.cz/2014/02/nepokoje-v-ukrajine-si-vyzadaly-zivot-wikipedisty/

May he Rest in Peace.

[…] gezogen, und die Massenmedien erzählten vergangenes Wochenende ein spätes Wintermärchen mit Leichen. Es muß dort wie im Wilden Westen zugegagen sein, es wurde scharf geschossen. Was das gleiche […]

Sad news, not just for Ihor Kostenko, but for all who found their death there…

[…] Nota traducida de la original, publicada en inglés en el blog de la Fundación Wikimedia, firmada por Mykola Kozlenko, en nombre de Wikimedia […]

Гарні люди помирають.

Rest in peace.

[…] превода на тази тъжна новина от блога на Фондация „Уикимедия“ с личните си […]

I hope that organisers of this violent regime change be found and punished.

Condolences from India. Really tragic to hear such news. Some Indians have offered to translate this blog post into various languages as well.

I’m deeply saddened at the loss of Ihor Kostenko. My deepest condolences go to Ihor’s family.

Very sad. God bless

Hello. You can translate this page into any language by clicking “Translate this page” at the very top of draft. Thanks!
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Blog/Drafts/Igor-English_blog

[…] التي اعتاد عليها جيمي ويلز أيضاً. وقع الاختيار على إيهور كوستينكو، وهو شابٌّ أوكراني فقد حياته خلال مظاهرات أوكرانيا […]