In the city of Bakhmach, Chernihiv region, they said goodbye to 25-year-old pilot Andrii Antikhovich, whose body could not be returned home for almost two years.

This is reported by the city council of Bakhmach.

On the night of February 23-24, 2022, Captain Andrii Antikhovich was on combat duty, being one of the first to defend Ukraine.

On February 26, 2022, he made a combat sortie on a Su-25 aircraft in the direction of Kherson, detected enemy columns and inflicted successful fire damage on them.

Thus, the pilot prevented the advance of the occupiers on Mykolaiv and Odesa.

Unfortunately, the enemy hit the plane.

"And when the question arose whether to eject or destroy the enemy, he did not hesitate to direct the downed attack aircraft towards the enemy column. The captain died at the highest peak, in the prime of his young forces," the city council said in a statement.

The boy's body was found in the occupied territory.

It was managed to be returned only at the end of December 2023. 

"At first, he was buried in the settlement of Antonivka, Kherson region, which is still under Russian occupation," the city council said in a statement.

Obviously, we are talking about the village of Antonivka in the Skadovsky District, because the village of Antonivka near Kherson has already been deoccupied.

The defender will be buried in the Kyiv region.

In April 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi posthumously awarded him with the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi III degree.

On the website of the President of Ukraine, a petition was also created to award Andriy Antikhovych the title of Hero of Ukraine posthumously, which has already received the required 25,000 votes.

Now the family is waiting for its review and signing of the document by the head of state.

Earlier, we wrote about the father of six children from Volyn, who died 2 days before his release from the service.

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