"While kids are at school": Ukrainian S-300 missile system operator on shooting down Russian missiles

Tetiana is an operator of an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system and serves in the Kherson  Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade. She has two children, both university students, and her husband is an artillery gunner. Tetiana has been decorated with two awards For Courage, 3rd Degree and 2nd Degree.

The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shared Tetiana’s story on Facebook.

Tetiana has served in the anti-aircraft missile forces for over 20 years: she decided to join the military after her husband did. Over the course of the years, Tetiana has served in many different units and held many different positions. She says that when she joined the army, she had no idea she would stay for so long.

"I saw previous years of service as a familiar routine; yearly training events at shooting ranges were truly the most memorable part of every year for everyone in the anti-aircraft missile forces. But the beginning of the full-scale war has changed everything.

On 24 February 2022, we shot down our first Russian missile in Odesa Oblast. We haven’t stopped since: anti-aircraft battles, shooting down air targets, changing positions, deploying and retracting equipment, combat duties…" Tetiana says.

Her duty while operating an S-300 system is to detect and track Russian air targets. Her division has intercepted and destroyed more than 140 of them.

Tetiana says that an S-300 is not a very modern or automated missile system. How effective it is depends directly on the people operating it: from how well each of them is trained to how well they all work together as a team.

"I’m just a small cog in the air defence machine, but I feel enormous personal responsibility. My goal is to detect the target as quickly as possible, because otherwise we might lose it in a matter of seconds," Tetiana explains.

Mother’s Day is not at the forefront of her mind today. As in many previous years, she is at work, while her kids are studying and her husband is on a work trip.

"I’d like to be able to spend a bit more time with my kids, with my family… But, after all, it’s for them that we’re trying to protect our homes from enemy missiles and for them that we stubbornly continue to fight the enemy forces!" Tetiana says.

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