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On March 22, 2022, pilot Oleksii Kovalenko and navigator Serhii Verbytsky were shot down by the enemy near the town of Izyum (Kharkiv region) while performing a combat mission. Serhii managed to survive and reach the evacuation point, but he did not know what happened to his partner. Due to the russian army’s occupation of those territories, Major Kovalenko was considered missing in action for a long time. Only after the region’s liberation did the aviator’s fate and feat become known, and his family could say goodbye to him. In 2023, Serhii Verbytsky and Oleksii Kovalenko were awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.

In October 2022, the War Museum organized an expedition to the de-occupied territories of the Kharkiv region to collect artifacts and preserve the memory of russian crimes in Ukraine. Fuel tanks, flight instruments, and a parachute from the plane were delivered to the Museum. In addition, Oleksii Kovalenko’s family handed over his personal belongings. However, retrieving the wreckage seemed unrealistic at the time.

But the story did not end there. Officer of the 10th Army Corps @Vyacheslav Skoryak and the Come Back Alive Foundation initiated and organized the transfer of the legendary Su-24M to our Museum. Today, it is on display at the Memorial complex.

The Museum is grateful to its friends and partners @Come Back Alive for their invaluable assistance in preserving the artifacts of the russian-Ukrainian war, as well as to @Nova Post, which immediately responded to our request and fully provided the logistics of the future exhibit from the Kharkiv region to the capital.

Only through our collective efforts can we honor our defenders and pass on the story of the Ukrainian struggle for freedom to future generations. In this way, our Museum becomes a place to immortalize the future Victory not only of Ukraine but of the entire democratic world.