The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
Olha serves as a combat medic in the 36th Separate Marine Brigade named after Rear Admiral Mykhailo Bilynskyi.
Her story was published on December 21 on the brigade’s page as part of the project “Marines of the 36th: Stories of the Passing Year”.
The heroes of this project are soldiers from various units of the brigade who became the faces of the brigade’s 2026 calendar.
Before joining the army, Olha spoke with her son, explaining that she felt it was her duty to be useful to the country during a time of major war. At first, he did not agree to let his mother go, but later accepted her choice. Thus, Olha joined the 36th Brigade as a combat medic.
In her first days at the stabilization point, she was most afraid that she would not cope emotionally when seeing the wounded.
“I worried that I might lose consciousness at the sight of blood, panic, and at a critical moment fail to do what I had been trained to do. But I managed.
At the beginning, it was very hard not so much physically as morally, because you constantly see people’s suffering. I felt sorry for everyone to the point of tears, especially the young guys”, — Olha admits.
