In the battles, border guard Andrii, using the nickname "Tuz" demonstrated leadership qualities and led a group of State Border Guard Service fighters in positions near Avdiivka.

Before the full-scale war, Andrii was in Poland, and his military experience was limited to mandatory service. At the beginning of 2022, Andrii was working abroad. When the aggressors began shelling Ukraine, a frightened call from his daughter motivated him, as a father and a citizen, to return and protect his child and homeland. "Are you going to war?" asked Andrii's employer, a Pole who without hesitation allowed his employee to leave and assured him of support.

Since spring 2022, Andrii, as part of a joint border detachment, held back occupiers on the Lysychansk direction. He recalls that it was much tougher than near Avdiivka, where powerful defense lines had been established since the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) times. Near Lysychansk, they had to restrain the enemy on unprepared positions, digging in at depths of 40-60-80 centimeters, as time allowed. All of this was under constant shelling, when the enemy was mercilessly firing and had not yet asked the question: "Where are the ammunition?".

The unit, in which "Tuz" advanced to a position near Avdiivka, was formed in the winter of 2023. Andrii was assigned to lead the shift, which on a rotational basis held the designated combat positions. The backbone of the unit is the guys from Chernihiv Oblast. "Their motivation is to liberate Eastern Ukraine as well as they recaptured Chernihiv," Tuz emphasizes. The border guard says that near Avdiivka they had to hold back various enemies, some prepared and equipped, others disposable. The latter met much more often, they were not even given a walkie-talkie to call for help or request evacuation, the rioters did not even try to take their bodies. The border guard calls today's war a war of drones. He says that enemy drones fly in every 20-40 minutes. Kamikaze drones are accompanied by reconnaissance copters or those that make drops. He notes cases where some UAVs follow others to calculate the location of the operators. At his position, the enemy dropped mine-traps, the so-called witches, from drones several times. But the border guards detected the "witch's web" in time and neutralized the explosive gifts.