Oleksandr I. Koba

Sergeant Oleksandr Koba was killed on October 21, 2022, during an artillery shelling near the village of Novopoltavka in the Kherson region. Oleksandr was from the village of Lysa Hora in the Mykolaiv region. He studied at the Mykolaiv Shipbuilding and Odesa Agrarian Universities, but did not complete either one, always joking about it. He worked on the land. He loved people and Ukraine. He actively participated in the Revolution of Dignity. Since 2014, he has been repairing vehicles and passing them on to the defenders at the front. When the full-scale Russian invasion began, Oleksandr joined the ranks of the 123rd separate brigade of the territorial defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the second day. He was a squad commander. He joked that he was demoted: he left the Soviet army as a lieutenant, and now he is a sergeant. He always found a reason to laugh. His comrades-in-arms say that he raised everyone's morale. "He was everything to me: a dad, a friend, a mentor, and a role model. In August, he came home for two days. He said: 'How I don't want to leave. That's probably why they let us go, so that we remember the cozy home and drive the orcs faster,'" says his daughter Kateryna. The defender was buried in his native village. Oleksandr left behind an elderly mother, a wife, and two daughters.