UKRAINE, ORIKHIV, Aug 19 — Mortar operator Olha Serdiuk, call sign Lialia, was killed while repelling a Russian assault on the Orikhiv axis in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said Myroslav Otkovych, Ukrainian soldier. Later, the Armiia TV channel confirmed this information.

Lialia was from Kharkiv and served in the 130th Territorial Defense Battalion as a mortar operator. She was previously in the infantry but transferred to the mortar unit after being wounded.

“I don’t want my children to leave Ukraine. I want them to live in their hometown, in Kharkiv. I don’t want Russians to come here,” said Lialia about her motivation for Armiia TV.

Otkovych said that Lialia believed in victory like no one else. She was repairing her apartment in the center of Kharkiv, despite the constant Russian air attacks.

“Lialia could have stayed home, but she went to the front. Lialia would not want your sympathy, because she came to the front to kill the enemy,” he said.

According to Otkovych, in addition to financial support for Lialia’s family, the memorialization process has already begun. Representatives of the Women Veterans Movement will collect stories and memories about Lialia in a separate project. Also, Andrii Netyksha, a mortar battery commander, will prepare documents for giving an award to Olha Serdiuk. 

Olga is survived by two daughters, her mother, and her husband, a military serviceman.

At the end of July, Ihor Klymovych, historian and cultural activist, was killed on the frontline in the Kharkiv region during a combat mission.

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