25-year-old fighter pilot Serhiy Parkhomenko was killed in May while on a combat mission in the Zaporizhzhya region during the war in Ukraine. His only two-month-old son attended his father’s funeral to pay his respects to Parkhomenko, along with many relatives and comrades.
It is a moving image: a Ukrainian soldier holds a baby in his arms to show him the portrait of his father, who died after the Russian invasion. The boy is only two months old, he will never get to know his father.
Parkhomenko’s son, who is too young to realize his father will never come home, was taken to the funeral by a man believed to be Parkhomenko’s father, the Daily Mail reports. Relatives put red and white roses on the Ukrainian hero’s coffin.
“He was the soul of the Luftwaffe unit”
The commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, said during the funeral that Parkhomenko died “heroically” on May 14. “He was the soul of the air force unit, the commander who led his unit into battle,” Oleshchuk said.
Before the memorial service, two Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jets serving in the region roared above the community center to pay their respects to their fallen comrade.
Parkhomenko was posthumously awarded the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Order for his exceptional services in defending state sovereignty and state security during the Russian invasion. Considered an accomplished fighter pilot, he dreamed of a life in the Air Force from an early age.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
