Zelenskyy awards Hero of Ukraine title to fallen pilot Juice

Alona Mazurenko — Tuesday, 1 October 2024, 11:09

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to the fallen pilot Andrii "Juice" Pilshchykov on the Day of Defenders of Ukraine.

Source: a decree by Zelenskyy

Quote: "For personal courage and heroism showed in the defence of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and selfless service to the Ukrainian people, I hereby decree that the title of Hero of Ukraine with the Gold Star Order be awarded to Major Andrii Pilshchykov (posthumously)."

Background:

On 26 August 2023, it became known that a well-known pilot, Andrii Pilshchykov, who went by the alias Juice, and two other pilots were killed in a collision between two Ukrainian aircraft on the evening of 25 August in Zhytomyr Oblast. The Vasylkiv-based Tactical Aviation Brigade reported that Viacheslav Minka and Serhii Prokazin were also killed in the crash.
The State Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the investigation, said that among the possibilities for the plane crash are technical malfunction of the aircraft, pilot error, and violations of flight management. The crash was caused by a collision between two aircraft during a turn.
The investigation has rejected the possibility of sabotage.

For reference:

Andrii "Juice" Pilshchykov (originally from Kharkiv) devoted eight years of his life to flying. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, he had logged more than 500 hours of flight time, including during combat missions in difficult conditions. He received a number of state and departmental awards.
He was a pilot in the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade of Air Command Tsentr (Centre), whose collective image of pilots was nicknamed "The Ghost of Kyiv" for their courageous actions in defending the capital and Kyiv Oblast from Russian aircraft.
Pilshchykov was active in the Western media and lobbied for the provision of modern F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

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