Oleksandr "Journalist" Makhov is a fan of football club "Zorya" (Luhansk).

Oleksandr Makhov was born in Luhansk on April 17, 1986. He graduated from Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University with a degree in journalism. From a young age, he played football in the academy of "Zorya". Later, while working on regional television, he hosted the program "Zorya Football", which was dedicated to the main team of the Luhansk region. He started his career on the regional channel "IRTA", later the talented specialist worked for many years on the channels "Ukraine" and "Ukraine24", as well as on the channel "Dom" (in 2021-22).

At the same time, "Journalist" actively supported FC "Zorya" at home and away matches. He was regarded as a member of the sector, although he was not a part of any of the teams. Since the beginning of the Russian occupation of Donbas, Oleksandr covered the events in the war zone and had a podcast called "Viyskkor". In 2015 he joined the Ukrainian army. He served as an anti-aircraft and machine gunner in the 57th separate motorized infantry brigade. During the ATO he took part in combat operations near Horlivka - in Zaitseve and Maiorsk.

The fate of the "Journalist" made interesting turns and did not let him get bored. In 2017, he was seconded to Antarctica, which he called a short vacation between participation in hostilities and coverage of events on the eastern front. His stories and features introduced viewers to the nature of the remote and cold land. At the same time, Oleksandr always had a thirst for life, overcame thousands of kilometers, climbed mountain peaks, and ran marathons. It seems that he was not afraid of anything in this life. For example, in 2020, he was the only representative of the Ukrainian media in the observation in Novi Sanzhary, Poltava region, where evacuees from Wuhan, China, were brought for quarantine.

All these years, "Journalist", while showing Ukrainians the war from the front line, remembered his home and dreamed of returning to his native Luhansk. He often wore a T-shirt with the image of a shot sign with the name of the city where he was born. With the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, he immediately went to the military registration and enlisted to defend Ukraine. Almost all the time he was in the Kharkiv region, which was one of the hottest areas of the great war. Not having the opportunity to be close to his beloved Anastasia, he proposed to her on a video with a grenade ring.

Oleksandr Makhov died in battle on May 4, 2022, as a result of artillery shelling, he was wounded in the lung. Death was not instantaneous and the brave defender of Ukraine managed to ask the medic to tell Oleksandr's fiancée that he loved her. "Journalist" was buried at Berkovetskyi cemetery in Kyiv. On May 24, 2022, he was awarded the Medal "For Courage", III degree (posthumously).