Yury Antipkin

Yurii Hennadiiovych Antypkin was born on 26 June 1950 in Kyiv, then the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. He studied medicine at the Kyiv Medical Institute, today the Bohomolets National Medical University, and graduated in 1975. He went on to earn the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences in 1990 and later held the title of professor.

Antipkin joined the Institute of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine in 1975 and remained there for more than half a century. After the 1986 Chornobyl disaster he became one of the specialists studying its effects on children, and from 1990 he headed the institute's clinical department for the health of children affected by the catastrophe.

In 1995 he became first deputy director of the institute and in 2005 its director. The institute was later named after academician Olena Lukyanova and reorganised as the State Institution All-Ukrainian Center of Motherhood and Childhood of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, with Antipkin as general director. He was elected a full member of the academy in 2007, became a member of its presidium and served as academician-secretary of the Department of Clinical Medicine and chief pediatric specialist of the academy.

His scientific work focused on calcium homeostasis and vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and children, the prevention and treatment of respiratory diseases in children, and programmes to reduce the effects of radiation and environmental pollution on women and children. He wrote more than 550 scientific works, including around 30 monographs, textbooks and manuals, held 34 patents and supervised 33 doctors and candidates of science.

He was president of the Association of Pediatricians of Ukraine, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the European Paediatric Association, chair of the joint Pediatrics problem commission of the Ministry of Health and the academy, and a member of the Interdepartmental Commission on Child Protection. He sat on the editorial boards of several journals, including Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Perinatology and Pediatrics. In the 2014 parliamentary election he was fifth on the list of the Strength and Honour party, which did not enter parliament.

Antipkin lived and worked in Kyiv throughout his life. Little has been published about his private life. Tributes after his death expressed condolences to his family and described him as a wise leader and a person of great kindness.

Yury Antipkin died on 22 October 2026 in his 77th year, aged 76. The Bohomolets National Medical University announced his death the same day, and the news agency Ukrinform reported it that evening. The Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine described his death as sudden, untimely and tragic. The cause of death was not made public. The Poltava State Medical University and the Poltava regional society of pediatricians called it an irreparable loss for Ukrainian pediatrics.

Antipkin is remembered as one of the leading figures of Ukrainian pediatric science and as the long serving head of the national center for maternal and child health. His studies of children affected by Chornobyl and his work on vitamin D and respiratory disease shaped clinical practice in Ukraine, and the many doctors and scientists he trained continue his work. The National Medical University said his contribution to medical education and science would remain part of the history of Ukrainian pediatrics.