Oleksandr A. Moskalenko

Senior soldier Oleksandr Moskalenko was killed on January 30, 2024, in the Chasiv Yar area of Donetsk region. While carrying out a combat mission, he received fatal injuries during an enemy mortar attack. The defender was 29 years old. Oleksandr was born and lived in Kyiv. He was the only son in the family. His father worked as a deep-sea captain, traveling the world on commercial voyages. He was killed when the boy was only 5 years old. His mother worked at the Ministry of Communications since the Soviet era, and from the first years of independence, she stood at the origins of the formation of Ukraine's international mail. In his teenage years, Oleksandr experienced his first significant trial. "He was very honest and fair-minded. But there was a lot of injustice and pressure, especially from teachers, at school. Sasha's legs became paralyzed due to constant stress. From the 5th grade, we transferred him to homeschooling. Sasha's friends were helpful: they came to him, helped him move and rehabilitate. These guys were his friends for life. But he never returned to school," his mother Zoya Mykolaivna said. The boy was first fascinated by drawing, then by computers. When he started walking a little, his friends took him to play football - they put him in the goal, socializing him. Due to a serious illness, the boy was not taken into the army. Oleksandr went to the machine-building lyceum at the National Aviation University, where he studied to be a computer communications operator. But he did not work in his specialty, began to look for himself in various jobs and found one. In the summer of 2019, he got a job at the "Nova Poshta" company. From a simple operator, he quickly grew to become the head of the branch. "Postal service was just in his blood. At work, Sasha was responsible, not lazy, put in desire and effort, knew how to communicate with people. He had a strong and rather closed character, so he did not tell much about some moments of his life and emotions... He said that when he came back from the war, he would get married. Maybe it was just a dream, or maybe a specific plan," added Zoya Mykolaivna. On February 24, 2022, Oleksandr, together with his school friends, took up the defense of his city and his country. Completely inexperienced boys ended up in the 112th separate brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces. They didn't even know how to hold a weapon. But they were taught, they went through "practice" in Bucha, Irpin, Romanivka, helping to evacuate people in that terrible situation. And in the autumn of 2022, they ended up in the Luhansk region. Oleksandr became a good soldier, skillfully destroying the enemy and caring for civilians: sharing the last with them. After half a year, he came on rotation. He received the rank of senior soldier and the status of a participant in hostilities, and passed the courses of a machine gunner of a mechanized company to fight on an armored personnel carrier. In October 2023, with his battalion, he took up the defense of Chasiv Yar. He was wounded, spent two months in the hospital, and then a little more on rehabilitation. In December, he returned to his unit. For the last time. The military was buried in the capital. Oleksandr's mother is left behind.