Oleksandr S. Balukh (Balu)

Junior Sergeant Oleksandr Balukh (call sign Balu) was killed in action on July 28, 2022, while performing a combat mission near the village of Chepil in the Kharkiv region. The defender was 26 years old. Oleksandr was born in the village of Leukhy, Vinnytsia region. After finishing school, he entered the Monastyrysche Professional College and received the profession of a cook-barman. He took on any job. He worked, in particular, as a waiter and salesman. He adored football, played in the football team "Irpin ATO", had numerous awards for sports achievements. In 2016, he was drafted into the army. During his service, he signed a contract with the 3018th unit of the National Guard of Ukraine. He held the position of gunner-operator of the BTR. Since 2018, he has been participating in the ATO/OOS in Donbas. After completing his contract, he got married, moved to Dnipro and worked at "Epicenter". On the second day of the full-scale war, on February 25, 2022, Oleksandr joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in the 40th separate rifle battalion "Kodak". He was the commander of the department. During his military service, the fighter was awarded the medals "For participation in the antiterrorist operation", "Veteran of the war", the breastplate "Knight's Cross" (posthumously) and the Order "For Courage" III degree (posthumously). "Sasha was a bright and very kind person, a loving husband, a good friend, and the best father for our daughter, but, unfortunately, very little. For him, the family was the main thing in life. For the sake of our daughter's future, he went to war so that she could live in a free country. He had many friends, always smiling, the soul of the company. He loved life, we had many plans for the future. We were together for 4.5 years, and married for only a year. When the war began, I asked him not to go, but he replied: "Who, if not me?" This is a great loss for our family and everyone who knew him," said the wife of the deceased warrior Margarita. The hero was buried in his native village. Oleksandr left behind his father, wife, and daughter, who was only 2 months old at the time of her father's death.