This medal celebrates a city that bore the brunt of the attack and was surrounded by russian troops from the first days of the full-scale invasion. Despite suffering numerous airstrikes and missile attacks, the city put up such fierce and heroic resistance that the enemy failed to capture it. Okhtyrka withstood assault and became an impregnable outpost against the further advance of the enemy army into Sloboda Ukraine (northeast Ukraine), and deeper into the country. Despite intense pressure from the enemy and the destruction of 80% of the city’s infrastructure, people without heat, water and electricity found the strength again and again to clear the city of the debris from bombings and bring its liberation closer.
Obverse: above, against the background of a stylized shining sun with bolts of lighting (symbolizing punishment for the invaders), is Ukraine’s small coat of arms, under which are a bird that stands for liberation and the following semicircular legends: УКРАЇНА (Ukraine) (to the left) and ОХТИРКА (Okhtyrka) (to the right); beneath is a stylized composition: the city being bombed by the enemy; to the right is a track of a missile hitting the city council; to the left is a residential building behind which a child is playing; against the backdrop of the composition is the legend 2023/МІСТО/ГЕРОЇВ (2023/city/of heroes); to the right is the mint mark of the NBU’s Banknote Printing and Minting Works.
Reverse: against a smooth background is a stylized composition that stands for the present as seen through the prism of the novel “Tiger Trappers” written by an author who was born in Okhtyrka; the novel praises courage and the ability to win: a Ukrainian soldier is a modern trapper of predators; above the solder is a shining sun; there are the following legends: СМІЛИВІ (courageous people), (vertical, to the left), ЗАВЖДИ (always) (above) МАЮТЬ (have) (to the right) ЩАСТЯ (happiness) (beneath).
Painter: Maryna Kuts
Sculptor: Computer-aided design by Yurii Lukianov
Coins in circulation: 40000
Diameter, mm.: 35
Quality: special uncirculated
Coin edges: smooth