Kherson Farmer Who Removed 5,000 Mines and Downed 200 Drones Posthumously Named Hero of Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the Golden Star to Oleksandr Hordiienko, a farmer from the Kherson region who single-handedly cleared mines from his fields and shot down Russian drones.

This was reported by the Office of the President on November 10.

Hordiienko dedicated more than 30 years to agriculture. He owned the Hordiienko farming enterprise and served as head of the Association of Farmers and Private Landowners of the Kherson Region.

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War in Ukraine

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According to his daughter Alina, after the liberation of the right bank of the Kherson region, he independently cleared thousands of hectares of farmland, removing more than 5,000 anti-tank mines. To ensure continued operations, he worked to protect his equipment and staff from shelling.

He also used electronic warfare tools and a rifle to counter Russian drones, taking down more than 200 of them.

The farmer was killed on September 5 when Russian forces targeted a civilian vehicle with a drone near the village of Urozhayne in the Beryslav district. The 58-year-old farmer was inside the car at the time of the strike.

Earlier, it was reported that since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, explosive devices in Ukraine have injured 1,358 people and killed 380, among them 21 children.

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