These days, the memory of sailors who died in battle and were shot in Babyn Yar in the winter of 1942 is commemorated annually in the National Historical and Memorial Reserve "Babyn Yar". Employees of the Reserve every year hold lectures, and exhibitions, and visit memorial sites - the graves of those who are buried in the military and civilian cemeteries of the Lukyaniv Necropolis.
The Pinsk Military Flotilla heroically defended the approaches to the Ukrainian capital on the Dnieper River and on land in July-September 1941. After the retreat of the Soviet troops from Kyiv, on the evening of September 19, 1941, a detachment of sailors was formed near Darnytsia, consisting of two battalions, a separate company and an officer's company. The detachment included the personnel of ships, headquarters and rear units of the flotilla.
On the morning of September 20, 1941, the personnel of the detachment of the Pinsk military flotilla formed the day before, under the command of Captain 2nd rank Brahman I.I. took his last fight. The sailors launched a counterattack, breaking through the battle formations of the German troops in the area of the village of Ivankove, Boryspil district. According to the memories of local residents, the battlefield was covered with the dead in black naval uniforms. According to archival data, more than 200 sailors died.
The sailors, who were lucky to survive in an unequal battle, continued to fight being surrounded. Together with army units, and then in small groups, sometimes alone they made their way through the enemy's rear to the front line, joined the active fleets and flotillas and continued the fight against the invaders. Those of them who could not break through the enemy ranks continued their struggle underground or in partisan units. However, some of the wounded and exhausted fighters, lacking ammunition, were captured and executed by Nazis in Babyn Yar.
The exact number of sailors shot is still unknown. There are individual testimonies of eyewitnesses, and there are also many myths. In particular, Kyivan N.T. Gorbacheva testified that in the winter of 1942, 65 captured Red Fleet sailors were shot in Babyn Yar. Doctor of historical sciences, Professor Mykhailo Koval claims that on January 10, 1942, Nazi executioners executed about 100 Red Fleet sailors and commanders of the Dnipro detachment of the Pinsk military flotilla in Babyn Yar.
The memory of the feat of sailors - heroes of the Second World War will always live with us.