Directed downed plane toward column of invading Russian forces: widow of fallen pilot describes is heroic final deed

The wife of the deceased Hero, Tetyana Lyutashina, told about this on the air of a nationwide telethon, Espreso.Zahid reports.

According to her, her last conversation with her husband was on March 7.  For a whole month, the woman did not know anything about her husband, he did not contact her.  And only at the beginning of April, she got a call and was informed that he had died.

"We found a local resident, in front of whose eyes it all happened. He saw everything. And when the anti-aircraft defense hit the Russians, he (Andrii. - Ed.) still had bombs left, and he dropped these bombs into the lake. He operated his plane so that he did not fall on the village, not on the people, but in the forest strip, where the Russian equipment was standing. This man showed us the place where he died, but we could not get there, because there were landmines there," Tetyana said.

She also knows about the death of another pilot in that place, in the village of Berezovka. Fierce battles also took place there.

The last words that Andrii Lyutashin said to his friend, with whom it was not possible to meet, sounded like this: "We will meet, but only after our victory, and we will set the tables from Uzhhorod to our Kuban."

Reference. The head of the air-fire and tactical training service of the tactical aviation brigade taught cadets to fly, put future fighter pilots on the wing. From the first days of the war, back in 2014, when Russian enemy first set foot on Ukrainian soil, Andrii did not hesitate to stand up for his defense and was close to his fellow soldiers until the end.

The 47-year-old major was buried on the Alley of Glory in his native Mukachevo, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine with the highest award, the Order of the Golden Star.