The letter arrived at KhAI these days. KhAI graduate Serhiy ARASLANOV writes:
I would like to tell you about Andriy Zubenko, a KhAI student who rightfully deserves to be included in the ranks of the Khai Heavenly Legion.
Andriy was born in Kharkiv on February 8, 1968.
Since childhood, the boy dreamed of the sea, and that is why he chose the Pacific Ocean as his path.
By the end of the USSR, he had already studied at the Naval Academy in Vladivostok for five years and was an excellent student.
After the collapse of the Union, he realized that he no longer belonged in the navy. However, they did not want to expel him as an excellent student, so he served as a sailor for two more years.
In 1993, he was enrolled in the third year of the KhAI Engineering and Management Faculty, which he graduated in 1996.
After that, he worked for three years in the editorial office of an aviation magazine.
The sea and the sky are two elements where he felt truly free.
Meetings with designers and pilots, paragliding, trips to aviation rallies and salons - all this inspired and fascinated him.
In 1999, Andriy moved to Kyiv. In the early 2000s, he was already the director of a department in one of the companies, dealing with logistics and international relations. Stable earnings allowed him to return to his old dream - sailing trips.
This dream led him to the Kyiv City Cruising Yacht Club. Trips along the Dnieper and the Black Sea, participation and victories in competitions, and the title of Champion of Ukraine in sailing gave him the confidence that it was time to compete with the Ocean.
Andriy became the navigator and radio operator of the crew of the sailing yacht "Kupava", on which he made a round-the-world trip.
The expedition was organized without the participation of sponsors. In total, seven people were on board during the trip, but only two - captain Yuriy Bondar and navigator-radio operator Andriy Zubenko - completed the entire route. After Robinson Crusoe Island, they were the only two who managed the yacht.
Andriy was on the Maidan from the first day of the Revolution of Dignity until the most brutal battles at the end of February 2014. There he was injured, after which he was no longer able to return to normal life. In the same year, he became a volunteer and delivered aid to ATO fighters.
In 2015, he became interested in unmanned aerial vehicles. At first, these were purchased drones, later he began to form his own team to produce them in Ukraine.
But his wife was diagnosed with oncology, and he spent three years in Israel, not leaving his wife until her last day.
In February 2022, he joined the terrorist defense, defended Kyiv, and liberated the Kharkiv region.
He was one of the first to organize an unmanned aircraft unit in his brigade.
In terrorist defense, he took the call sign "Pilot".
In moments of calm, he captivated his friends with his stories about the sea, about a circumnavigation of the globe.
In the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where he became a drone pilot, Andriy took the call sign "Crusoe".
In the summer of 2022, Andriy was diagnosed with cancer. But he continued his service. He underwent therapy sessions in Kyiv and returned to the front.
In 2024, after a complex operation to remove the tumor, he went to Israel for rehabilitation.
On December 21, a message came from him: “I’m in the hospital. It’s been 2 weeks.”
Andriy did not respond to the New Year 2025 greetings…
His sacrifice is an example for future generations…
Andriy continued to fight when others would have had the right to stop and think only about treatment.
He endured the burden of the front and at the same time fought a ruthless disease — patiently, silently, like a true warrior.
And what we have left as a legacy is memory.
The memory of a person who went his way to the end, without betraying either himself or Ukraine.
A memory that will be preserved by generations of KhAI people.
Andriy Zubenko. Graduate of 1996.
Eternal memory and a low bow from all of KhAI.