Andrii B. Zhydkov (Prepod)

Scientist, teacher, and territorial defense fighter Andriy Zhidkov (call sign Prepod) was killed on November 4, 2022, during a battle with occupiers in Donetsk region. The 50-year-old defender suffered a fatal injury from a fragment of an enemy Grad missile. Andriy was originally from Luhansk. He graduated from the Eastern Ukrainian National University named after V. Dal. After the occupation of his hometown, he moved to Severodonetsk, became a lecturer at his university, and later served as vice-rector. He held a PhD in technological sciences. He also had his own business and was a private entrepreneur. He was a developer, a public activist, and an advisor to the public council of the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme. With the onset of the full-scale war, the scientist changed his field of activity and took up arms, joining the territorial defense forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “8 years. About 15% of life. Moreover, this is not life from 1 to 8, when little depends on you. There came a clear understanding that things, money, and position are worth very little. That you need to live here and now, because waiting for when 'we will return / things will get better / better times will come' can go on endlessly,” Andriy wrote on his page on September 15, 2022. “Such a sturdy 50-year-old man turned into a complete bundle of tenderness when it came to his fluffy favorite… The way Andriy treated his family always amazed me,” wrote his friend Kateryna Horiatchko. “You tried to make the world around as accessible as possible for everyone, and we made, installed, and painted ramps, applied yellow paint on the stairs of the university buildings, and added some tactile markings with floor numbers on the handrails,” wrote his friend Serhiy Mitrokhin. The defender's body was cremated. Andriy is survived by his mother and sister.