"One of the best": Ukrainian drone operator Kateryna "Meow" Troian killed in action
Kateryna "Meow" Troian, a first-person view drone operator with the 82nd Separate Air Assault Brigade, has been killed in action on the Pokrovsk front in Donetsk Oblast.
Source: Olena Kondratiuk, Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament
Details: Kateryna joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces less than two years ago and carried out missions in the operational zone in Russia's Kursk Oblast and in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast. During her service, Meow completed over a thousand successful drone sorties.
Kondratiuk said that she and Ambassador Valerii Zaluzhnyi had shared Kateryna's story with members of the UK Parliament just a week earlier, during the opening of the photo exhibition Women Defending Ukraine.
Kateryna was killed on the Pokrovsk front at the age of 32.
Her brother-in-arms, Sashko Shershun, expressed his condolences and shared memories of her.
Quote from Saskho: "There are fewer and fewer truly great people... We never saw you give up. You were never afraid to ask questions and you were always ready to learn, teach and help.
You endured guided bomb attacks, artillery and mortar barrages and enemy FPV drone strikes with us. You were one of the best in your element."
More details: Another comrade, Valentyn Dembitskyi, called Kateryna "both a brave person and a skilled warrior" with whom he had withstood numerous Russian attacks and completed many complex missions.
"Meow came to war to become a true expert," he said. "We will remember her as a teammate who genuinely cared – the most important quality.
"She came to war as an equal," he added. "We knew her as a person with an open heart and no arrogance. She was always ready to help and never hesitated to ask for help herself."
Kateryna's friends have launched a fundraiser to support her family.
Background: Earlier, paramedic Mariia-Khrystyna "Alpaca" Dvoinyk was also killed in action defending Ukraine. She was fatally injured while on her way to evacuate a wounded soldier.
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