The Commander of the Trusted Forces, Nikolai Oleshchuk, fulfilled his promise to the mother of the fallen Ukrainian pilot Andrey Pilshchikov, call sign Juice.
At the farewell ceremony with Juice, I promised Andrei Pil’shchikov’s mother, Liliya Aleksandrovna, that I would at least sit in the cockpit of an F-16, the plane that Andrei had dreamed of flying. And I kept my word.
Unfortunately, Juice almost missed his training mission to the United States. And today, his mother is in the cockpit of the F-16. She continues her son’s work and will do everything to make our wings stronger, – Oleshchuk wrote on his Facebook page, where he posted a video with Juice’s mother.
She became acquainted with the F-16s, whose arrival in Ukraine her son had lobbied for and accelerated.
On August 25, 2023, during a combat sortie of a pair of L-39s near Zhitomir, a terrible air crash occurred: three Ukrainian pilots died at once: Vyacheslav Minka, Sergey Prokazin and Andrey Pilshchikov.
On August 24, 2024, Zelensky gave the honorary title “Ghosts of Kyiv” to the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade, where the deceased Juice served. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, this brigade has been protecting the skies over Ukraine.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.