The moments they endured during the first days of the full-scale invasion made them closer than blood brothers. Even their war stories sound nearly identical.
Meet military pilots Oleksii Chyzh and Ivan Pepelyashko — the men who guarded the peaceful skies over cities in the early days of February’s winter and held back the enemy’s advance on the northern border.
On March 8, 2022, the occupiers shot down their Mi-8 helicopter with a missile. They managed to eject before the crash but couldn’t escape from the enemy on the ground.
“During landing, we both suffered the same leg injuries — multiple fragment fractures of the tibia. Ivan also had fractures of three lower vertebrae,” says Oleksii Chyzh.
After their return from captivity, the soldiers were initially treated at a Kyiv hospital, but their injuries did not heal properly. Two months in captivity had taken their toll: Oleksii had developed a bacterial infection in his leg, and Ivan’s injured vertebrae began fusing incorrectly. Due to these complications, their families decided to apply for them to receive medical treatment abroad. This was the first time in four months that the brothers-in-arms were separated.
“We were in the same crew. When we went down, we stayed together the whole time (laughs). Even when we were in captivity, our beds were next to each other. But when it came to assigning treatment, Oleksii was sent to Germany, and I was sent to Norway. That was a real tragedy — not seeing each other for nine whole months,” says Ivan Pepelyashko.
Today, Oleksii Chyzh and Ivan Pepelyashko are back in Ukraine. They have both returned from treatment abroad and are now undergoing rehabilitation at home, determined to stand strong again and continue doing what their war story began with.
