Сергій Вікторович. Жаркіх (Кашель)

Senior soldier Serhiy Zharkikh (call sign Cough) was killed on September 10, 2022, while carrying out a combat mission to liberate the Kharkiv region. The occupiers shelled the armored personnel carrier in which the defender was located. He was to turn 44 years old on September 15. Serhiy was born in Donetsk. He graduated from the Donetsk Polytechnic College. He worked as a mechanic and in construction. He loved nature very much and wanted to be a forester. After the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, he left his hometown and moved to the Kharkiv region. Since 2019, he lived in the village of Rohan in Kharkiv Oblast. In 2021, he graduated from the V. V. Dokuchaev Kharkiv National Agrarian University with a degree in "Forestry." He loved reading, painting, and music, and traveling across Ukraine. He was a jack-of-all-trades. Since 2014, Serhiy participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO). Initially, he was part of a volunteer unit, and later he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). He served as a mortarman in the 93rd Brigade and then in the 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade. He was awarded for "Best Artillery Battery of the Ground Forces of the AFU" during competitions. He very much wanted to return to peaceful life. He bought an apartment and dreamed of being a forester. But a full-scale war began. Cough returned to the army again from the first day. This time he fought as part of the 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade named after the Cossack Ataman Ivan Sirko. He was the senior gunner of the grenade launcher section. "Serhiy was an extraordinarily kind and sensitive person. He was always ready to help. He never complained, was an optimist, and loved life and people. He hated feeling helpless and had a heightened sense of justice, which is why he joined the military," said his sister Olena. "Cough listened to wonderful music. And he read, read, read. He read even while sitting in the middle of a field in a wet tube, dug into the ground. He fought since 2014. But he never made it home to Donetsk," wrote his combat friend Valeriya Burlakova. The defender was buried in the Alley of Glory at the cemetery in Kharkiv. Serhiy is survived by his sister and many comrades, female combat friends, and friends.