A recipient of the Hero of Ukraine and Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky awards, Kukurba served as a member of the Ukrainian Air Force during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when he died in battle.

Oleksandr Kukurba was born in 1994 in the village of Verkhnii Verbizh in Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.

[1] He studied at the Nizhniy Verbizh comprehensive school, and completed his military service as the head of intelligence at the headquarters of the 299th tactical aviation brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

[2] During the repulse of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kukurba flew 100 sorties, destroyed more than 20 tanks and about 50 combat units of armored vehicles and other means, as well as more than 300 enemy personnel.

[5][6] The Nizhniy Verbizh community declared 27–29 July to be days of mourning.