OCTOBER 10, 1977 — APRIL 22, 2023
45 YEARS, JOURNALIST, COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
Oleksandr, callsign «Bond», used to recite Ukrainian poetry in between shelling. A human with a will of steel. A human with the clearest motivation. A human with the best music playlist in the company. He had a sharp mind, lavish humor and enchanting voice. Intellectual, journalist, athlete and fighter. His smile made any meeting joyous. His uncompromising nature was alluring. All of this was said about Oleksandr by his friends.
After the full-scale invasion, the journalist left his media career behind and became a soldier. On February 26, he posted an image of an assault rifle on his social media page. First, he joined the Territorial Defense, guarded the capital city, took part in the Kharkiv counteroffensive. Soon after that, he was on the front lines, serving in the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade, 244th battalion. He was originally from Luhansk. He was a graduate of the Luhansk National University, a «Ukrainian philology» major. He moved to Kyiv in 2004. Oleksandr worked for «Hromadske radio», «5 channel», and television channels BBC, ICTV, «Ukraina». From there, he ventured into the communications field, with his first job at PlusOne company; later, Oleksandr was head of special projects in strategic communications agency and Reputation Management Agency (RMA).
Oleksandr was among the best Ukrainian consultants in communications field. In 2018, he and a group of co-authors published a collective monograph “Strategic communications amidst hybrid warfare: perspectives from volunteer to researcher”.
In the summer of 2021, Oleksandr was seriously considered for a position of President Zelenskyy’s press-secretary. In early 2020, Oleksandr published a blogpost «Three anti-crisis communications rules for President Zelenskyy», in which he spoke of the main communications mistakes of the president after the crash of a Ukrainian civil airplane in Iran.
Throughout his whole life, Oleksandr spoke Ukrainian. Luhansk birthed him, and the war took his life there. He was killed in battle on April 22, 2023, in Dibrova village outside Kreminna: what took Oleksandr’s life was a sniper’s bullet. The journalist is survived by his son.
During his lifetime, Oleksandr fulfilled his dream, which was also his main challenge – to become a professional swimmer. Open water swimmer. He once set a goal of swimming across the Bosporus, and made it happen. Not long before the full-scale war, he was speaking proudly of his 4,5-kilometer swim results at Oceanman Lago d’Orta tournament in an Italian lake. «Amazingly picturesque views and crystal-clear water. They say, one can drink from the lake, it’s so pure. I did, by the way, during my swim», wrote the journalist.
Oleksandr left swimming behind to help bring about another victory, one that is so important for many. He always faced new challenges, with his last, the most heroic one – to defend his country against the russian invasion.
Oleksandr was laid to rest on May 1, 2023 at the Heroes Avenue of the Lisove cemetery in Kyiv.
