Olesia V. Mykhailenko (Lesia)

Servicewoman Olesya Mikhailenko (call sign Lesya) lost contact after May 8, 2022. She was on the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, Donetsk region, when a Russian air bomb hit the bunker. The defender was 22 years old. Olesya was born in the village of Voskresenska, Zaporizhia region. Since she had a large family, she helped a lot in the private household from an early age. She graduated from the Faculty of History of Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy and parallel accounting courses. At school, she attended a dance group. She performed a lot, sang, embroidered with beads, photographed and made videos. She was interested in psychology, wanted to obtain two higher educations in the fields of "History" and "Finance", and also dreamed of learning many foreign languages. During the full-scale war, the girl served in the separate special purpose unit "Azov". At first, she was a clerk in the material support company, then took the position of a telephone operator of the 1st crew of the command and staff vehicle of the communications node. The girl was very fond of Lesya Ukrainka, her life path and brilliant work. Therefore, she decided to take the call sign Lesya at first, and later "grow up" to Ukrainka. "Olesya is a bright, beautiful, generous, sincere, kind girl. Very hardworking. So rich in warmth, compassion for everyone. Our bright warm sun, our joy and our happiness. To help everyone, to encourage everyone - at work, at home. Even from the full encirclement, from inhuman conditions, she tried to calm down that everything will be fine, that we will meet. She was very worried about her father, brothers, knowing that they are where it is the most difficult, about her nephews, wives of brothers, about me, whether we have something to eat. Although we were in relative safety," her mother Nadiya said. Olesya is survived by her father Volodymyr, mother Nadiya, brothers Ihor, Danylo and Svitоhor, nephews and nieces. Posthumously, Senior Soldier Olesya Mikhailenko was awarded the Order of Courage of the III degree.