The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
Twenty-four-year-old Iryna, call sign “Prymarа”, serves in a mobile medical evacuation group of the Liubart Brigade of the 1st Corps “Azov” of the National Guard of Ukraine. Her job is to extract the wounded from dangerous areas, stabilize them en route, and deliver them to points where the fight begins not for minutes, but for hours and days of life.
Her story was told in a new episode of the Ministry of Internal Affairs project Heroes on the National Guard’s page.
From theater to frontline ambulance
Before the full-scale invasion, Iryna lived in Poland and planned to enroll in theater directing. She was preparing for exams and intended to return to Ukraine. But February 24 shattered those plans.
“I realized that art was no longer the main thing. I wanted to do something useful”, — she recalls.
Iryna joined the service in March 2024, choosing a field where results are measured not in words, but in pulse and breathing.
Work where every mistake is fatal
Her primary mission is medical evacuation — a military ambulance equipped with everything needed to keep a wounded person alive until transfer to medics.
“There are evacuations where you understand: if you hadn’t done something, the person would have died”, — Iryna says.
One such case became pivotal for her: a gunshot wound to the chest, tension pneumothorax, hemorrhagic shock. At their stage — decompression, blood transfusion, stabilization. These actions saved the person’s life.
“There is no relief — only the understanding that you did everything”
Iryna notes that there is no moment to “exhale” in medevac. Even after transferring the wounded to doctors, there is no certainty that the danger has passed.
Often, work takes place under conditions of delayed evacuation — when the “golden hour” is unreachable due to drones, artillery, and complex logistics. Then every minute on the road becomes a fight to keep the person alive until reaching the operating table.
The place where she found herself
After the war, Iryna no longer plans to return to theater. She says medicine is what she had been moving toward all her life.
“It has always been important for me to understand that I am truly helping people. Here I feel that I am in my place”, — says “Prymarа”.
