Ruslan M. Kulibaba

Born on February 12, 1982, in the city of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region. In 1999, he graduated from Nikopol Secondary School No. 8. He served his mandatory military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In 2008, he graduated from the Nikopol Institute of the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management with a degree in "Law." For some time, he worked in the criminal department of the Nikopol City Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. In the spring of 2014, he was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in the 25th Separate Dnipropetrovsk Airborne Brigade of the High Mobility Airborne Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (military unit A1126, the urban-type settlement of Hvardiyiske, Novomoskovsk district, Dnipropetrovsk region). From the summer of 2014, he participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation in eastern Ukraine. On June 14, 2014, around 1:00 AM, the military transport aircraft IL-76 MD of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while approaching to land at the airport in the city of Luhansk, was shot down by terrorists using a portable anti-aircraft missile system. On board the aircraft were 40 servicemen of the 25th Separate Dnipropetrovsk Airborne Brigade, including soldier Kulibaba, and 9 crew members. As a result of the crash, all personnel of the airborne unit and the aircraft crew were killed. On July 25, 2014, he was buried in the city cemetery of Nikopol. On September 2, 2014, a memorial plaque was unveiled in the city of Nikopol on the facade of Nikopol Secondary School No. 8 (5 Dovhalivska Street), where Ruslan Kulibaba studied.