Organized training of F-16 pilots for official training: the mother of the legendary "Juice" told little-known details of his biography. Exclusive

On August 25, 2023, near the village of Singury, Zhytomyr region, Ukrainian pilot Andrii "Juice" Pilshchykov crashed during a collision between two training aircraft. As a child, the hero wanted to connect his life with aviation; as a result, during the full-scale war, he became one of the "Ghosts of Kyiv".

The mother of our defender, Lilia Averyanova, told OBOZ.UA little-known facts about the Jus. Her son defended the Ukrainian sky for each of us.

It was not the first time that Pilshchykov entered the Kharkiv National University of the Air Force named after Ivan Kozhedub, as his eyesight failed him. But the future pilot made a correction to fix it.

"I can't say that I would have told him not to go, to take care of himself, or to find some other mission. No. He was already on his way, and it was only necessary to support him along the way, to say the right words," Averyanova said.

The warrior received his call sign, Juice, in September 2019 during a visit to a U.S. air base in California. This is how his foreign colleagues began to call him.

"We had a night off, went out to bars. Of course, adults ordered something alcoholic. Andriy did not drink alcohol with me. It was a principle... And they just kept seeing him asking for juice," explained Hero's mother.

A year before the full-scale Russian invasion, the pilot left the service. He had a conflict with his command because he demanded better working conditions for young pilots.

"It was not a protest, it was a reasonable conversation. We should have listened to it, not humiliated the guys. He wasn't the only one who quit. So many episodes have accumulated over the past five years... The last straw in this problem was the attitude to the investigation of the crash of the An-26 in Chuhuiv with the airborne troops (26 soldiers were killed then - Ed.)," the Ukrainian said.

According to her, the servicemen "saw how it was all being stonewalled," and the trials in the case were delayed.

After the outbreak of full-scale war, Pilshchikov returned to military aviation. He had the largest number of combat missions in his brigade.

Pilshchikov actively promoted the idea of the need to transfer F-16s to Ukraine. He repeatedly traveled to the US, visited the Pentagon, met with US senators, and recorded videos on this topic.

"Juice's" mother said that her son "knew everyone" and knew how to talk. In addition, the soldier prepared his fellow pilots for training even before the training officially started.

"He organized the training - language, technical... It took a whole year to get this issue politically approved," Averyanova said.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, during her farewell to her son, Lilia Averyanova asked the commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mykola Oleshchuk, to give her the opportunity to at least sit in the cockpit of the first F-16 to arrive in Ukraine. A year after the downing of the Juice, when F-16s are already piercing the Ukrainian skies, Oleshchuk fulfilled his promise.

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