Ruslan O. Bilous

Ruslan Oleksandrovych Bilous was born on November 6, 1985, in the village of Myrne, Melitopol district, Zaporizhia region. In 2003, he graduated from high school and enrolled in the Kharkiv National University of the Air Forces of Ukraine. After graduating in 2007, he served in the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade named after P. Franko, rising from senior pilot to deputy commander of the aviation squadron. On February 24, 2022, the crew of the aircraft, consisting of Major Bilous and navigator Dovhaliuk, took to the skies in a Su-24M aircraft. That day, the crew successfully carried out the evacuation of aviation equipment from a missile strike and landed at an alternate airfield. They continued to successfully perform combat missions as assigned. Ruslan Bilous was killed on February 27, 2022, while carrying out a combat mission involving fire damage to the enemy's personnel and equipment near the village of Berezivka in the Bucha district of Kyiv region. For personal courage and selfless actions demonstrated in the defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as loyalty to the military oath, Ruslan Oleksandrovych Bilous was posthumously awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi of the III degree.