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Twenty-four-year-old fighter of the unmanned aerial systems battalion Andriy, a father of three children — the youngest of whom is only two months old — despite having every right to be discharged, remains in the ranks because, in his words, it is here, in his new combat family, that he is making his contribution so “the Russians don’t reach my home.”
The path of the fighter from mechanic-driver of an evacuation vehicle to an FPV drone operator was told on the page of the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Zakarpattia Brigade.
Andriy has served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine for four years: first conscript service, then a contract in a repair-and-restoration unit. Although the unit was considered rear-line, he spent almost all his time at the front — as a mechanic-driver of an ARV-1 (armored recovery vehicle) he pulled more than a thousand pieces of equipment out of the battlefield: tanks, IFVs, APCs, SPGs, and trucks.
Once his crew, in pouring rain and 250 meters from the enemy, recovered a “bekha” that had become stuck in its own trench. And in Donetsk region, working alongside Russian evacuation crews, they captured two IFV-2s, one of them intact with a full complement of ammunition.
That work is deadly dangerous. Comrades died before Andriy’s eyes: “As soon as two of them jumped down from the armor to hook up the vehicle, artillery hit. One died, the other was wounded. I survived only because I was sitting at the controls.”
Andriy knows how to drive any vehicle — from a Soviet tank to modern NATO armor. For his fearlessness he was awarded the Order “For Courage,” 3rd class. As one of the best mechanic-drivers, he was sent to train in Germany, where he mastered the Bergerpanzer-2 based on the Leopard.
“When the German instructor saw me at work, he said, ‘You are a very good mechanic-driver. I never let anyone drive this vehicle in 4th gear — you’re the first’ ”, — Andriy recalls.
After three years in the evacuation unit, Andriy transferred to the 128th Brigade. The battalion officer of unmanned systems, Andriy Zadorozhny — who, sadly, was killed in April — suggested he try himself as a drone operator. Now the fighter works with a fiber-optic FPV drone: “I flew into enemy dugouts and could see everything clearly — down to the details of the generator.”
At home in Poltava region his wife and three children are waiting for him: a 4-year-old daughter, a 2-year-old son and an infant.
“It’s hard that the children are growing up without me. My daughter even calls me at my position: ‘Ah, you’re in a hole again! When will you come home?’ I want to give my children everything I didn’t have myself. That’s why I stay here — I do what I must do. Because my home is only 200 kilometers from the enemy”, — he said.
