Ilhar S. Bahirov (Balu)

Ilgar Salehovich Bagirov was born on May 12, 1970, in Baku, in a military family. He was Azerbaijani by nationality, but he spent his entire conscious life in Ukraine. In 1992, he graduated from the Kharkiv Higher Military Aviation Engineering School, and later from the Faculty of Educational and Social-Psychological Work of the National Academy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in the Hostomel Communications Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In 2002, he was discharged from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In 2009-2010, he worked as a lecturer at the Irpin Economic College. In March 2014, he was called up for military service by mobilization and took the position of deputy commander of the company for educational work in the 11th Territorial Defense Battalion "Kyiv Rus." The checkpoint commanded by Captain Ilgar Bagirov on the road connecting Russian Rostov-on-Don with Debaltseve continued to be called "Bal's checkpoint" after his death. Ilgar Salehovich became a legend even during his lifetime. When Sloviansk was liberated, he took a vehicle from the separatists and decorated it with his own call sign. In mid-September, when terrorists tried to push Ukrainian forces out from Debaltseve, he jumped into a tank and drove straight at the enemies. At that time, the fighters said that it was thanks to his desperate maneuver that they managed to hold the strategically important checkpoint. However, he never considered himself a hero…