Colonel Kuzmenko Andrii Pavlovych

22 October 1977 – 10 December 2015

Kuzmenko Andrii Pavlovych

Colonel

Andrii Kuzmenko was born on October 22, 1977 in Kyiv.

He dedicated 17 years of his life to military service, eleven of them at the SSU Center for Special Operations "A".

Colonel Kuzmenko held positions from an operative to the head of a structural unit of CSO "A", he took part in hundreds of combat operations. He participated in peacekeeping missions twice, and he also carried out measures to ensure the security of the Ukrainian Embassy in the Republic of Iraq.

As an experienced officer, Andrii was among the first officers to be sent to the ATO area in Donbas. In the breaks between secondments to the east, he took part in special operations as an "Alpha" officer.

On December 10, 2015, Colonel Kuzmenko took part in the detention of saboteurs who were holding an arsenal of weapons and were hiding in a tower-block in the capital. During the armed response of the saboteurs, Andrii shielded his blood brothers from the bullets and he saved the life of a child, who was also in the room.

For personal courage and self-sacrifice during the performance of a special task, Colonel Kuzmenko Andrii was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky of III degree (posthumously) by Decree of the President of Ukraine of December 11, 2015.

Andrew is survived by his wife and two sons.