The commander of the Mykolaiv squadron, who was killed on the first day of the war, has been awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to Lieutenant Colonel Oleksandr Zhybrov, commander of an aviation squadron in the 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade named after Lieutenant General Vasyl Nikiforov. The officer was awarded the Order of the Gold Star.

The corresponding decree, No. 1048/2026, was signed by the president on October 19, 2026. The document states that the award was granted for personal courage and heroism shown in defending Ukraine’s state sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as for devoted service to the Ukrainian people.

Oleksandr Zhybrov was killed on February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion, while carrying out a combat mission in the Kherson region. Before the attack on Ukrainian airfields began, he organized the relocation of the 299th Brigade’s aircraft from Mykolaiv to an operational airfield, saving them from destruction during the strike on Kulbakine Airfield.

After the squadron had been redeployed, it was tasked with attacking Russian military convoys advancing from occupied Crimea. Zhybrov led one of the first pairs of aircraft sent on a combat mission. During a second attack, his aircraft was hit by Russian air defenses. The pilot did not abandon his mission and steered his aircraft into the enemy convoy. He was killed.

Oleksandr Zhybrov came from a family of military pilots. After graduating from school in Kropyvnytskyi, he enrolled at the Kharkiv Institute of Pilots of the Ukrainian Air Force. He was a first-class military pilot, qualified to fly L-39 and Su-25 aircraft, carried out combat missions during the Anti-Terrorist Operation in eastern Ukraine, and trained young pilots. He served for many years in Mykolaiv, commanding a brigade squadron based in the Korabelnyi District, and had close ties to the city and the Mykolaiv region: his wife, Oksana, was born in Nova Odesa in the Mykolaiv region, and their daughter was born in Mykolaiv.

In March 2022, Oleksandr Zhybrov was posthumously awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 3rd Class. After his death, his body could be recovered from temporarily occupied territory only in late 2022. In March 2023, the pilot was buried at the Alley of Honored Military Burials at the Dalekoskhidne Cemetery in Kropyvnytskyi.

We previously reported:

• He steered his damaged aircraft into an enemy convoy: call for Mykolaiv pilot to be named a Hero of Ukraine
• “It’s all hands-on, precision work”: on the attack pilots of the 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade
• Street in Mykolaiv may be named after a pilot from the “Kulbakine” air brigade
• “We’ll avenge Andrii’s death!”: fellow pilots pay tribute to the Hero pilot from the Korabelnyi District
• “Forever in the sky”: the 299th Brigade honors fallen pilots