Protecting Ukraine since 2014: how a former teacher became an air forward observer

Olena Barsukova, Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia —  FRIDAY, 8 JULY 2022

Taras, a leading air forward observer, has been serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2014.

He used to be a teacher in civilian life but with the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war he went to defend his country.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told the story of the Ukrainian defender on Facebook.

"I joined the army as a soldier and here I mastered the profession in which I wanted to develop further. I have loved aviation since childhood.

But you can’t become a pilot so quickly, so I chose a specialisation that is closest to my favourite job and became an aviation fire spotter," says Taras.

In his civilian profession, Taras is an English teacher.

But with the start of the war in 2014, he changed jobs without hesitation.

It was a difficult path to access the appropriate education, including several training courses, an attestation board, etc.

"Aviation is romantic but at the same time extremely difficult work. However, it is not enough just to do this work to achieve good results, you have to live it and, most importantly, love it," Taras admits.

The first days of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation were the most difficult for Taras but his perplexity soon passed.

"You just focus on your work and complete the assigned tasks. I couldn’t even imagine that I would be able to see with my own eyes how well aviation works.

For example, how a column of enemy Ka-52s comes in. It seemed like I was watching a computer game. It was a very tense moment. But... it turned out that those Ka-52s worked in their own positions [of the Russian forces]. Well, Ukrainian defenders also worked on them," Taras says.

Taras, the serviceman, said several months of full-scale invasion have proved that nothing is impossible for Ukrainians.

Taras advises working "smartly" and never being afraid because fear is the biggest enemy.

"The level of Russian aviation is much lower than ours. In my opinion, the latest technologies that they use in their aircraft don’t help them because in general their tactics are very primitive.

On the other hand, our pilots, taking into account the existing technical fleet, do simply incredible things," the soldier says.

However, it will be possible to talk about some of these achievements only after the end of the war.

"My generation did not know the price of freedom. Now we know. And this should be handed on to future generations, so that in the future we do not allow our freedom to be encroached upon and, even more so, lost," the soldier emphasises.