A year ago, on this day, Lt. Jr. Andriy Taran (callsign “Deimos”) was killed by russians near Robotine. He was my brother-in-arms from the officer courses group.

All I have are pictures like this (a fragment of a random common photo in some cafe), and my memory.

He wanted to be an architect but worried his drawing skills weren’t up for the task. So, he pursued his other dream and became an aviation traffic controller. Eventually, got mobilized into the infantry reconnaissance.

One of the youngest in our training squad, 24 years. Good-natured and with a good sense of humor, one of my closest circle in the squad (all three people from the group who perished since were from that circle).

We were frequently on guard duties together (part of the training), and at nights to not fall asleep, he asked to practice English with me, talking about all kinds of things. His English was probably better than mine (which is not stellar but acquired through 20 years in the programming community).

He loved books, aviation, and had a lot of plans. He was killed while helping his wounded brothers.

I could’ve been in his place (when we were deployed, we almost exchanged our combat platoons).

Glory to heroes.