Monument to the Pilot S.I. Kharkhalup, Konstantinovka Village

In the opening days of World War II, Senior Lieutenant Semyon Ivanovich Kharkhalup demonstrated extraordinary aerial courage, completing 52 air battles and destroying three enemy aircraft during the initial desperate weeks of the conflict. In one remarkable engagement, he successfully knocked down a German bomber using a battering ram maneuver — one of the most courageous and dangerous techniques in aerial combat.

On June 30, 1941, Semyon Ivanovich died in an unequal battle against enemy fighters, his aircraft crashing on the outskirts of his native village while the villagers below watched the combat unfold above them — his own parents among those who witnessed their son’s final moments. This unbearably intimate tragedy gave his death a particular poignancy that the village has never forgotten.

After the war, the remains of S.I. Kharkhalup were reburied in the center of Konstantinovka, where a monument was erected in the distinctive form of a MiG-15 aircraft tail — a striking sculptural choice that connects the memorial directly to the world of aviation that defined his brief but heroic life. The monument bears an inscription of profound simplicity and beauty: “Those who die in the sky for their homeland become the sky above it.” A separate small memorial obelisk was subsequently erected at the actual site of the pilot’s death on the village outskirts, ensuring both the place of his final resting and the place where he fell are permanently honored.

Location: Konstantinovka village, Kamenka district