A helmet and protective vest are not part of her uniform as she hands out first aid kits and other equipment to Ukrainian soldiers and paramedics. She’s a civilian, the founder of a medical non-profit organization, and her looks are something no one can take away from her, even in a combat zone. “I’m myself and I’ll never give up my heels for anything,” Voronkova said of the red strappy sandals, beige and other stylish footwear she usually pairs with skirts and midi dresses as she makes dangerous rounds of secret military bases. and mobile medical units. The former Ukrainian defense ministry adviser with master’s degrees in banking and finance is a familiar sight for officers and soldiers in eastern Ukraine. For eight years after Moscow seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, Voronkova has dedicated her life to providing regular medical training and equipment to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February created exponentially greater need for her organization, Volunteers Hundred Dobrovolia, and new challenges. Working alone, Voronkova and her assistant, Yevhen Veselov, drive a truck full of supplies—everything from night vision goggles and battlefield essentials like tourniquets and medical staples to the advanced equipment needed for brain surgery— quickly through checkpoints, regardless of the curfew. The soldiers recognize Voronkova and with a look let them pass. The smell of her sweet cherry cigars fills the air when she steps out of her van to smoke one with her manicured red fingernails. Although she manages 20 people and lives in Kyiv, Voronkova has been in eastern Ukraine since the Russians focused their attention there in April and insists on delivering first aid kits to the front lines herself. “A woman is like the neck of the head. It moves everything,” he said. Voronkova grew up loving medicine, but her family didn’t want her to follow it. They were bankers and believed he should follow the same career path. The separatist conflict that began in 2014 convinced her to study combat medicine and she eventually became certified as an instructor. From 2015 until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense tasked her with finding solutions to the problems faced by army units in the Donbass. Now, she uses her own teaching techniques to help units protect themselves and their comrades in battle. “I still remind my mother that when I was in 10th grade, I had a box full of (over-the-counter) pills and all my friends at school knew I had medicine for everything,” she said. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t pursue my dream. But today I apply it by giving help.” Martial law has swelled the ranks of Ukraine’s defenders, but many of the people who have joined the army during the war, now in its sixth month, lack combat experience or the supplies they need. “It’s like 2014. We need first aid kits and ground defense uniforms. I think it was created with hardly any time to allocate a budget for them. Therefore, they need support from volunteers,” says Voronkova. As she brought boxes of scalpels, electrocoagulation devices, emergency catheters and other supplies to a hospital in the city of Kurakube, the roar of outgoing rockets and incoming shelling didn’t make her flinch. In her tactical medicine class, Voronkova commands a room full of soldiers, paramedics and technicians of various ages. She grabs their attention with her strong voice, humor and experience. Air raid sirens went off as she taught a lesson in Dompropyllia, but she continued her lesson in an underground bomb shelter. The training it provides has become more critical during the long-running battle for Ukraine’s Donbas region, where Russian forces have carried out relentless airstrikes and bombardments but have also engaged in street-to-street fighting as they try to take control of villages. , towns and cities. Voronkova believes that the opportunity for the Ukrainian government to work out a peaceful solution with Moscow has long passed and “at this moment, the price of victory is our lives.” During her travels around Donetsk, Bakhmut, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Toretsk and other places Russia hopes to capture, she meets and advises everyone from high-ranking officers to paramedics. The male police officers listen and the young doctors open up to her about their experiences. Voronkova stands for hours, patiently listening and giving guidance. “Every night when I go to sleep I ask myself, ‘What good have I done today?’ he said. “I want people to understand that they come into this world not only to eat, drink and be entertained every day, but to do something good. No day should be wasted.”
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