People like Oleksandr Pavliuk rarely make the headlines or feature in news stories, yet they perform crucial tasks to keep Ukraine’s gas flowing. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Oleksandr, a truck driver at the Zaporizhzhia industrial site of the Ukrainian Gas Transmission System Operator (GTSOU), has been responsible for evacuating work equipment from his site and another site in Kramatorsk. Each trip took him through active combat zones.
“Fear? There was no fear—we were just doing our job: moving equipment to safer regions,” he recalls.
One night, after the Zaporizhzhia industrial site was bombed, Oleksandr immediately rushed to the scene. Together with emergency service personnel, he helped extinguish the fire, stayed to guard the site until morning, and then worked with his colleagues to clear the debris.
In the following months, Oleksandr’s work took him to liberated Kherson, where he delivered much-needed generators and humanitarian aid. The road was lined with burnt-out military vehicles and missile fragments. The view from his truck window was far from encouraging, and at one checkpoint, he was warned not to stop, as the sides of the road were mostly mined.
Upon arriving in Kherson, Oleksandr helped his colleagues set up a generator and returned to his industrial site the next morning. The journey back was no less challenging.
Along the way, he saw firsthand the devastating impact of the fighting. “When you realize what happened there, you need to stop, take a breath, and accept that the destroyed villages, houses, and roads around you are the new terrifying reality. I asked my colleagues at the site how far the Russians were. ‘Six kilometers,’ they said. At night, you could hear the artillery. You hide your vehicle and still carry out your mission. That’s my job: to deliver materials for strengthening facilities and evacuating equipment.”
Oleksandr doesn’t see himself as a hero, but his determination, composure, courage are crucial in keeping Ukraine’s gas transmission system operational despite Russian attacks.