Oleksandr Franasiuk has been working at the Khmelnytskyi NPP for over 20 years: he started, first as an engineer, later as a hydrogeologist, in the thermal underground communications workshop in 2002. Since 2004 and up to date, he has been working as a controller engineer of Technical Inspection Department. The first-category engineer’s area of responsibility includes operational and acceptance control of maintenance activities on the equipment and pipelines of turbine departments at power units 1 and 2. For his dedicated and outstanding work, he was awarded the “Guardian of Light” award of JSC “NNEGC “Energoatom”, personally presented by Company Head Petro Kotin.
However, in July 2023, the successful nuclear employee, being in demand and respected at work, made a radical choice in life – he went to the front as a volunteer. Then, as the young fellow's father, he said: “War is a man’s business. We, adult men, need to finish it so that our children do not know this rough work.” During this time, his son Maksym entered a medical university and took his first steps into adult life.
Senior Sergeant Oleksandr Franasiuk (pseudonym: Atom) completed his basic military training at the Tuchyn shooting ground in the Rivne region. He sharpened his skills for another month in the Kharkiv region. He served in an assault company in the Zaporizhzhizia direction. Senior Sergeant Franasiuk actually performed the duties of deputy platoon commander. There were 22 military servicemen under his command. “Most of the fighters had long entered their fifth decade, so it was not easy for them to carry out the combat missions that the assaulters faced – clearing landings, conducting battles. However, they were overcoming the challenges of war with honor,” commander recalls. He highly appreciates the motivation and unity of his fighters: there were no misunderstandings, conflicts; everyone was ready to lend his shoulder.
Oleksandr underwent battle testing near the settlement of Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region. The reality was in stark contrast to everything he had ever heard about fighting. You can watch military chronicles a thousand times, undertake training, but the taste of gunpowder is known only on the front line. “The first battles were the most terrible. Mortars, tanks, ground-to-ground rockets were simultaneously operating against assaulters; everything was flying... Brothers and sisters-in-arms were dying nearby,” fragments of the first firefights are still before his eyes.
During his service, the resident of Netishyn had to study the front-line geography of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv regions, visit the hot spots appearing in every news release -– Maryinka, Avdiivka, Kurakhove.
The platoon, where Oleksandr Franasiuk were serving, received proper military support. If something was missing, the Netishyn nuclear employees, public organization “Energy of our hearts”, colleagues from Technical Inspection Department, KhNPP administration, NNEGC “Energoatom” provided support. “From Netishyn to the front line, personal protective equipment, communication means, drones, medicines, everything I asked for” the man recalls with gratitude. Even after putting on shoulder boards, he continued to be from the team of nuclear employees. His colleagues from Technical Inspection Department of the Khmelnytskyi NPP called him every day. The longest conversations were probably with Department Head, Oleksandr Shyika – that was also psychological comfort, male support, a connection with the world of nuclear employees, in which the defender had lived a short time before.
Blood, fear, death, dirt, and very often inhuman living condition, did not break spirit of the Ukrainian military, including our interlocutor. The war taught them to survive in the open field. After all, no matter the provision is, the military at the front must have the skills of a scout. Ukrainians were creating comfort in basements, corners of tumbledown houses, dugout shelters. Engineers, including our nuclear employee, conducted light in the dugout, equipped temporary housing in different directions with heaters.
Missing the warmth of home, they fed cats and dogs that were turning to people. Oleksandr remembers with a smile the dog Vedmedyk, who ate his fill with military food. Because Ukrainian fighters generously shared their rations with the four-legged friends who “served” alongside them.
“There are two troubles in war – russians and mice,” – that’s exactly what the front-line soldier said without a shadow of a smile. In the dugout shelter, he used to hang his backpack two meters above the ground – rodents got there too. Those were gnawing round the thermal imager eyepiece and cigarettes, but they were not touching the chocolate. Sometimes the mice got so much that military had to take a ground pad, a sleeping bag and go out in the rain to spend the night on the damp ground.
In October 2023, in the settlement of Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Franasiuk received a shrapnel wound to the head and lost an eye. “It was still dark when we got the thicket. Suddenly I felt a headshot, a ringing in my ears, a flash before my eyes,” he tells about one of the most difficult days at the front. “I did not immediately understand what had happened. I fell to my knees, touched my arms and legs – those were intact. I thought it was a concussion. But later I felt blood start to flow from my eye, and I realized that I was wounded.”
Oleksandr had his eye removed in the Zaporizhzhia Regional Hospital. After two weeks, the man returned to performing combat missions on the front line.
Sometimes it was easier for senior sergeant Oleksandr Franasiuk to come face to face with death than to report the bad news to the family of the deceased person. Exhausted by the wording “missed in action,” relatives called the unit and asked for at least some information. They had to ask their brothers-arms, perhaps someone had seen the moment of death. Twice, the resident of Netishyn handed over the personal belongings of the Heroes to their widows…
The retrospective of the war will forever remain in Oleksandr’s mind. Over time, some fragments will fade, while others, on the contrary, will become clearer. The man is still haunted by a dream with the same plot: the enemy is advancing, a battle is raging, and his soldiers are running out of shells…
After treatment and rehabilitation, Oleksandr Franasiuk continued his service at the Vyzhnytsia District Territorial Center for Recruiting and Social Support. In October 2024, he was discharged from service with the rank of senior sergeant and returned to work at the Khmelnytskyi NPP. “The best socialization for me after demobilization was returning to my workplace, to performing my usual production tasks, to the circle of devoted colleagues. Because today the real problem is that many front-line soldiers return and cannot find themselves in civilian life,” emphasizes the former military man, and now again category I controller engineer of the Khmelnytskyi NPP Technical Inspection Department. Taking this opportunity, he expresses gratitude to the team of nuclear employees who supported him during the performance of combat missions.
Oleksandr Franasiuk states that if necessary, he will again rise to the defense of the Motherland: “Young people should not see the horrors of war, defeating the russian occupiers is a man’s business.” The “Guardian of the Light” award will take its proper place among his combat awards, because it shows that Energoatom remembers the participants in the fighting and appreciates everyone’s contribution to the Victory.
Adapted from materials by Larysa Vlasiuk.
