Tetiana Kucheriava, the first female tank driver in independent Ukraine, has died. PHOTO

After a long battle with a serious illness, Tetiana Kucheriava has passed away — a lieutenant-colonel, candidate of psychological sciences and senior lecturer at the National Academy of Land Forces, who in 2015 became the first woman in independent Ukraine to complete training as a T-64B tank driver.

Her husband, Oleh Dunduk, a soldier in the 80th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, announced her death, according to Censor.NET.

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What is known?

"Sadly, today, after nine months of an extremely difficult battle with illness, my wife Tetiana Kucheriava has left us. Many words are superfluous right now. You are the best mother and wife in the world! Rest in peace, we all love you," he wrote.

According to him, the wake for Tetiana took place on 26 August at 7.00 pm in the ‘Resurrection’ funeral chapel at 6 Pylyp Orlyk Street, on the grounds of St Panteleimon Hospital in Lviv. The funeral service will take place on 27 August at 11.00 am at the Garrison Church of Saints Peter and Paul.

Ukraine’s first female tank driver

Tetyana Kucheryava was born on 24 February 1987 in the village of Shevchenkove in the Kharkiv region. She obtained her higher education at the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute, where she also completed her military training.
From 2011, she devoted her life to military service, and in 2015, as a 28-year-old senior lieutenant, she successfully completed a training course as a T-64B tank driver and mechanic — Ukrainian media at the time described her as the first and only female tank crew member in Ukraine.

Kucheriava served at the Kharkiv Tank School and, in her spare time, learnt to drive a combat vehicle — she studied the theory, practised on simulators, and later drove out to the training ground on her own. On the eve of 8 March 2015, she drove a 50-tonne tank for the first time on her own, covering a distance of six kilometres without stopping once. Military officials believed at the time that, thanks to her perseverance, she could become not only a driver but also a crew commander.

Kucheriava herself said that she wanted to continue her training and master other roles within the tank crew, and that the prospect of being sent to the front did not daunt her.

"First and foremost, I am not a woman, but an officer," she said in an interview with the publication "Fakty".

Further service

From 2016, Kucheriava worked on the ‘Evacuation 200’ project — she was involved in the exhumation, transport and return of the bodies of fallen defenders to their families. She later passed on her experience to cadets as a senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychological Training at the National Academy of Land Forces in Lviv, where she remained until recently.