Placed on a yellow and blue Ukrainian flag covering the coffin, the pilot’s cap of “Juice”, “legend” of the Ukrainian Air Force, killed at 29 in an accidental plane collision.
Around the coffin, a hundred people – his family, relatives and soldiers – paid tribute on Tuesday in Kiev to the young fighter pilot Andriï Pilchtchikov, during a sober religious ceremony, in the Greek-Catholic cathedral of the Resurrection- of Christ.
Under the high dome of the modern building built on the banks of the Dnieper River, in a deep voice, filled with emotion, the commander of the Ukrainian air force, Mykola Olechchuk, greeted the one who “is not only a fighter pilot”, but “a legend”.
“More than 100 combat sorties, dozens of (Russian) command posts destroyed, dozens of cursed orcs eliminated. This is his contribution to our victory,” he listed, using a derogatory nickname for Russian soldiers, in reference to the bloodthirsty creatures invented by the British writer J.R.R. Tolkien.
Fluent in English, “Juice”, by his nom de guerre, has also been a tireless representative of Kiev to American parliamentarians in order to obtain F-16 planes to reinforce the Ukrainian fleet, which dates from the Soviet era. , and advancing its counter-offensive that has been underway since June against the Russian army.
“He really wanted our aviation to be modern and he did a lot to ensure that we received these F-16s,” reserve lieutenant-colonel Oleksandre Dovgal, who knew the young fighter pilot, told AFP. very nice and easy going.”
According to the officer, Andriï Pilchtchikov rubbed shoulders with American pilots in 2018 during exercises in Ukraine, then he went to the United States where “he flew in an F-15”. The Americans gave him “the indicative sign Juice because he drank absolutely no alcohol, only juice” from fruits.
“His dream was for the Ukrainian Air Force to be very strong, as they are in the Western countries that we admire, and he did a lot for that,” Yulia Rechitko, a friend of Andriy Pilchtchikov, told reporters. .
Lt. Col. Dovgal also points out that the young soldier “wanted to fight bureaucracy so that we could have a style and preparation like the American pilots. Nothing superfluous, no waste of time, just the improvement of our skills “.
Andriy Pilchtchikov was among the pilots of the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade, otherwise known as “the ghosts of Kiev”, who protected the skies of the Ukrainian capital at the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
He was killed with two other pilots on Friday in the Zhytomyr region of northern Ukraine in an accident involving two L-39 combat training aircraft, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Saturday.
“The day he died he took me to Zhytomyr. He took me to the hotel and told me he hoped to be back in two hours. And he never came back,” said told AFP his girlfriend, Melaniya Podolyak.
The young man was not part of the first group of Ukrainian pilots who will be trained in the United States from September in the handling of the F-16 fighter jets, which Kiev will finally receive from the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. .
On Tuesday, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak, paid tribute on X (ex-Twitter) to “a hero named Andriï, callsign Juice”.
“You dreamed of flying F-16s and did a lot (…) to ensure that Ukraine received these planes. Your name is forever inscribed in the history of Ukraine (…). Our pilots will fly F-16s. The skies will be ours, just as you dreamed.”
29/08/2023 16:16:53 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
