Volodymyr P. Zhuikov (Avdot)

51-year-old junior sergeant Volodymyr Zhuikov (call sign Avdot) was killed on July 12, 2022 near the village of Dementiyivka in the Kharkiv region. The defender fell into an enemy ambush and received fatal gunshot wounds. Volodymyr was born in the city of Krolevets, Sumy region, and studied in Poltava. Since the age of 18, he served on a ship in Vietnam, where he was a ship's cook. After completing courses in Kyiv, he worked on creating iconic online games in IT companies, and was a 3D modeler. He loved fishing, cooked exquisitely, was a professional in massage techniques, wrote poetry, and incredibly sculpted military equipment from plasticine. When the full-scale war began, Volodymyr joined the territorial defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was a senior shooter. Together with his comrades-in-arms, he went to the front line to defend the Motherland. "Volodymyr was an extraordinarily loving man, a talented person, a favorite of friends and comrades-in-arms. A person with an unparalleled sense of humor, which was loved by everyone around him. Vova went to fight on his own initiative and with great faith and confidence in victory," said his wife Evelina. "He knew how to cheer up and sincerely laugh, he knew how to convey in a few sharp and accurate words what others would take paragraphs to say. Because he knew the value of time. Probably, subconsciously, he felt that he was not allotted many years. But he filled them with emotions, joy, and laughter," said his sister Maria Rakhman. "Vova joked, thus maintaining a healthy, cheerful atmosphere for everyone. It was impossible to cry with him for more than 1 minute. Exactly a minute later, he masterfully turned tears into laughter. He was not afraid of the new - he learned regardless of age," added his godmother Viktoria Artyushenko. The serviceman was buried at the Berkovetsky cemetery in Kyiv. Volodymyr is survived by his wife Evelina, two sons: David and Arseny, mother Kateryna Semenivna, sister Maria, brother Vasyl, and daughter Tetiana.