Russian propaganda Telegram channels have published photos of Ukrainian Senior Soldier Ivan Solokha's torn uniform and his military identification in 2022, declaring him killed in action. But he survived, Air Command "South" reports.
In May 2026, he led a mobile fire group of the 137th Air Defense Battalion of Ukraine's Air Command "South," and on a recent attack, he shot down three Russian-launched Shahed drones over Odesa Oblast, bringing his total to eight kills in the past few weeks.
The arc Air Command "South" laid out today moves through three time periods — Solokha's service from 2014, his September 2022 wounds outside Opyne, and his present nightly work at the controls of a Soviet-era ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun against Iranian-designed Russian drones.
“They’re showing you as a 200”: fighter confronts reports of his own death
In the hospital room, the air heavy with antiseptic, Solokha had just received his fourth blood transfusion.
The wounds were extensive — pelvis broken, abdomen and legs damaged, ten-plus surgeries still ahead. His ward neighbor scrolled the news feed on his phone and stopped.
"Vanya, did you see? They're showing you as a 200," he said, holding up the screen with the Russian Telegram channel open.
The photos showed Solokha's military ID in the mud, fallen from his pocket as comrades carried him out under shelling. Solokha looked at the screen.
"You won't get rid of me. I'm still coming back for you," he added, hoarsely.
His neighbor sighed and looked at the lines and tubes around him, saying that he "should at least try to stand up first."
"I'm not joking. You'll see," Ivan replied.
From 2014 to missiles that hit Kyiv
Solokha joined the army at nineteen. He served through the Donbas war, the later Joint Forces Operation, and an eight-month rotation in Luhansk Oblast, where he first worked the ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun.
His unit used it to bring down Russian drones. It's in this region where he took his first wound. After the Donbas rotation, he tried to leave the war behind.
He married, his first son was born, he worked in Kyiv, and he fished on weekends along the Dnipro. Life looked like the one that comes after the war ends. Then the missiles hit Kyiv in February 2022.
"I kissed my son and my wife, sorted out a few household things, and went to the recruitment office," Ivan remembered.
He covered an operational airfield for over a year before volunteering when the Air Force began forming a combined infantry brigade. The deployment placed him alongside the 36th Separate Marine Brigade.
"The marines are maximally cool guys. Professional, stubborn, real. It was an honor for me to work shoulder to shoulder with them," he said.
The illusions about distance warfare went quickly.
"I understood that the infantry carries the heaviest burden, but the reality turned out even harsher. Real war without ornament. Villages wiped off the face of the earth, endless KABs, and artillery that doesn't stop for a minute. It is definitely never easy here," Ivan recalled.
Military ID once shown as trophy became proof
In the village of Opyne in Donetsk Oblast in September 2022, the Russian assault came in mass assault groups, artillery of various systems, drones, and aviation.
The Ukrainians still held the village then. Solokha was caught in the shelling that hit his unit during a movement
"I thought my legs were gone. The guys ran up and cut off my trousers. The pelvis was broken, the muscles damaged. As they carried me out, a 120-mm mine began to catch up. Bleeding, stomach, legs — everything got hit," Ivan said.
His military identification fell from his torn uniform into the mud. By the time he reached field medical care, his ID was already in a Russian Telegram channel as a trophy.
He survived being declared dead
The four transfusions kept him alive long enough for the surgeons. There were more than ten operations in the months that followed. When he was finally on his feet again — still with a cane — he began preparing to return to service.
His wife, who had been through every hospital with him, asked him quietly: "Haven't you fought enough yet? We have two sons at home." He looked at her.
"How will I look them in the eyes later?" he replied.
He couldn't have done it any other way, he said, especially with his brother also at the front. He went back first as an instructor, then to the ZU-23-2 again. After each night shift, he now has a report to deliver at home.
The military identification that became a Russian trophy three and a half years ago has been replaced by a different kind of identification: the one the 137th Battalion logs after each night's shootdowns, in a single column of figures that does not stop growing.
