Twenty-one-year-old Lieutenant Oleksandr Malanchuk, call sign Charlie, fell on April 1, 2020, in the village of Talakivka, Mariupol District, Donetsk Oblast. During enemy shelling of positions, the soldier suffered a fatal wound. One more Hero killed by russian orcs.
Oleksandr was born on September 26, 1998, in the city of Chernivtsi. He graduated from the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy. He was a career officer.
He played for the youth team of FC Bukovyna and received an offer to move to a team in the capital, but with the beginning of the russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, he gave up a football career and decided to become a soldier.
Oleksandr served in the 8th Separate Mountain Assault Battalion of the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade “Edelweiss.” He was a platoon commander.
“Brave, courageous, free. That was my son Oleksandr. A young officer at 21, after taking command of his unit, he immediately earned the respect and love of his subordinates. There were soldiers in the unit much older than him, but within a short time they were already addressing him by his patronymic. Fair, honest, and fearless, he never humiliated his subordinates and always stood firmly by them, understanding his responsibility for every life. The soldiers said they had confidence in him,” wrote his mother, Larysa Malanchuk.
The defender was buried on the Alley of Glory in the city of Chernivtsi.
Posthumously, the warrior was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, 3rd Class, the medal “For the Glory of Chernivtsi,” and the distinction “For Merit to Bukovyna.”
Oleksandr is survived by his mother Larysa, father Vasyl, sister Olha, and nephews Nadiia and Davyd.