Latest news with #Hospitallers
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
With music festival honoring fallen combat medic, Ukrainians reinvent memorial culture
Editor's Note: The following is the latest in a series of reports by the Kyiv Independent about the memorialization of Ukraine's fallen soldiers. "We weren't taught to live side-by-side with death in schools and universities, but it's always near," the speaker Anton Liahusha, the dean of the memory studies program in the Kyiv School of Economics, says during a lecture at the open-air Lviv folk museum. On June 1, thousands of Ukrainians gathered to celebrate the 27th birthday of a fallen military medic and memorialization activist, Iryna 'Cheka' Tsybukh. They listened to lectures about memorial culture in Ukraine, shopped for traditional and hand-made items, donated to the combat medic unit Tsybukh served in, Hospitallers, danced folk dances to live Ukrainian music, and sang Ukrainian songs around a bonfire. Promoting the values Tsybukh cared for in life, the 'Cheka fest' festival is a striking example of the new ways Ukrainians are honoring those killed in Russia's war, as old commemoration customs fail to hold the weight of continuous losses. The woman of the day was also at the festival as a large black-and-white portrait placed next to the stage. Tsybukh was killed during a front-line mission in Kharkiv Oblast in 2024 just days before her 26th birthday. Before her death, Tsybukh was a fierce advocate for the reinvention of memorial practices in Ukraine, recording several interviews with Ukrainian media and widely sharing her views on social media. The festival — named after Tsybukh's callsign and organized for the first time this year by her family, friends, and fellow activists — included both educational and musical programs. How to love their loved ones after they were killed? Before noon, hundreds of people had filled the lush green yard near one of the museum's traditional Ukrainian wooden architectural buildings. People sat on the grass and chairs, while others that hadn't managed to get a seat lined the fence and gate. They listened to lectures about memorial culture that aimed to put the incomprehensible into words: How to love their loved ones after they were killed? When the losses are so overwhelming, talking and remembering them together helped people share their weight, Tsybukh believed. Her own family and comrades on the stage recounted stories of how she lived out her patriotic values, becoming a 'a moral compass' to many of the young people who didn't know her personally. 'Stories about Iryna inspire, give you the strength to move on,' said Kateryna Borysenko, 31, a psychotherapist in training who survived 1.5 years in occupation in her native Donetsk Oblast. 'They give hope that, however much the heavens would fall, we'll live on.' 'I have made it my duty to attend every event like this, connected with the war, with heroes, with soldiers,' said Khrystyna Martsiniak, 21, a journalism student studying at the same Lviv university that Tsybukh graduated from. 'I also was (at Iryna Tsybukh's grave) at 9 a.m. today. It was something special.' The daily minute of silence at 9 a.m. to honor fallen soldiers was a staple of Tsybukh's memorial culture philosophy. She believed that if observed everywhere in the country, it had the power to unite Ukrainians in their shared loss. 'Stories about Iryna inspire, give you the strength to move on.' Tsybukh's belief in unity in the face of loss was so deep she designed her own funeral as a sort of memorial concert to bring people together in mourning. In a posthumous letter published by her brother, she outlined her wishes for the funeral, which included a request people to wear traditional Ukrainian garments — embroidered shirts called 'vyshyvanka' — and sing ten Ukrainian songs around the fire in her memory. The second musical part of the festival proved that Tsybukh's vision lives and expands, and is emerging as a new tradition. Thousands of people dressed in vyshyvankas covered the slope of a hill around the festival stage, where Ukrainian bands played the songs she loved. Hundreds danced as Tsybukh's family watched from afar. When dusk fell, people approached the stage to honor Tsybukh the way she wished: by collectively singing in Ukrainian. It seemed like the moment everyone was waiting for all day. From the stage, a short recording of Tsybukh's voice was played on a phone into the microphone. 'A most soulful evening awaits each of you tonight,' Tsybukh voice says from a recording taken during a concert she helped to organize for soldiers near the front. Her voice and her legacy echoed again in many hearts, as ten Ukrainian songs from her list filled the evening museum park. As the festival came to a close that evening, Tsybukh's friends and family promised to celebrate her birthday with a festival again next year. The remaining people gathered around the glowing embers of the fire to sing one last song — the Ukrainian national anthem. Maria, 28, who declined to give her last name, didn't know Tsybukh personally but came from Kyiv specially for the memorial festival, said she left the event with a sense of duty fulfilled. "I came here to see my beacon," she said, referring to Tsybukh, as she walked from the park through the dark streets with several other young women. Read also: Memorializing Ukraine's fallen soldiers: One asked to be cremated so future fighters don't 'dig trenches in our bones' We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Russian strike destroys medical battalion base in Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
A base belonging to the Hospitallers, a volunteer medical battalion, has been destroyed as a result of a Russian strike on the city of Pavlohrad in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on the morning of 25 April. Source: Yana Zinkevych, founder of the battalion, on Facebook Quote: "The Russians attacked Pavlohrad this morning. Children were killed, civilians were killed, peaceful homes were destroyed. Our battalion's base, and all the property and equipment that were in it, has been completely wiped out. They have struck at the heart once again. They have erased 10 years of work by thousands of people." Details: Zinkevych added that the base had provided shelter not only to paramedics and soldiers, but also to displaced persons and even animals. Quote: "Our life – full of love and unity – was there, and now there is only ash, ruins, shattered glass, and a silence that screams with unspeakable pain. The memory of our fallen Hospitallers was there, and artefacts of their priceless lives and heroism, which are gone now too." Details: Zinkevych has launched a new fundraising campaign with a target of UAH 20 million (about US$478,200) to establish a new base. The destroyed Hospitallers' base. Photo: Yana Zinkevych The destroyed Hospitallers' base. Photo: Yana Zinkevych For reference: The Hospitallers are a Ukrainian volunteer medical battalion that has participated in the Russo-Ukrainian war in Donbas since 2014. They provide first aid and pre-medical care and evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the battlefield. Background: On the night of 24-25 April, Russian forces attacked Dnipropetrovsk Oblast with drones, causing fires in several settlements. Three people were killed and 14 injured in Pavlohrad. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ukrainian soldier apologises for muddy boots on train; railway responds with touching message
Oleh Mahdych, a crew commander from the Hospitallers medical volunteer battalion, has apologised to Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) after boarding a clean Intercity train with muddy combat boots while returning from the frontline. Source: Details: "These are the feet of a person who just a few hours ago was walking through the combat zone. And now he's riding in a clean Intercity carriage. And he feels so ashamed… Sorry, Ukrzaliznytsia," the soldier wrote, adding that he would clean his boots more carefully next time. Ukrainian Railways responded to the soldier's post in the comments, saying that his boots were a symbol of "a war that gives us peace". "You apologise? And we bow our heads. Because these boots are a symbol. They carry the imprint of the war that gives us peace. They bear the earth you protected. We don't need clean soles. We need living Heroes. And if you are on an Intercity train – it means we did our part. We brought you to peace. Even if just for a few hours, even for a day – but to peace. You don't need to thank us. We thank you. Every day. With every journey," the railway company wrote. Oleh Mahdych said the comment brought tears to his eyes. "I'm sitting here, reading your comment. Took me three minutes to get through it. Because after every sentence, I looked out the window. Hiding my tears. And then a guy from the café came up. And offered me all kinds of treats. For free. As a thank you to the soldiers. Damn... What are you doing to my nervous system," he replied. Background: Earlier, it was reported that Ukrainian Railways had created a special ticket reserve for service members and their families. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
BBC News
13-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Peace talks are in parallel universe, say Ukraine front-line troops
While Moscow considers a temporary ceasefire, its military machine continues to press its advantage on the front line. Diplomatic negotiations can be slow and difficult. But on the battlefield, they can be measured in lost a military hospital in eastern Ukraine, the injured arrive by ambulance in waves. Here, there's an obvious disconnect between diplomacy taking place, far from the fighting, and the brutality of battle – where human bodies are still being smashed, shredded and scarred by bombs and watch another two dozen injured Ukrainian soldiers being loaded on to a bus to be taken to a hospital in Dnipro – some walking wounded, others carried on stretchers. The bus is fitted out with medical equipment to monitor the injured as they're driven fast over potholed men on board are the less severely wounded. Most have been hit by shrapnel. The cause is often what's now the most prolific and feared weapon on the front line – of those we talked to believe this war will be ending any time soon. Thirty-year-old Maksym is on a stretcher with an IV drip to relieve some of the pain from several shrapnel wounds across his body. He says he'd heard the talk of a temporary 30-day ceasefire, but adds: "I consider Putin a murderer and murderers don't agree so easily." Vova, who's sitting up nearby, says: "I don't believe it." He says that near the besieged city of Pokrovsk, they were facing Russian storm attacks every single day. "I doubt there will be a truce," he tells soldier named Maksym says this is the second time he has been injured. "I don't believe there will be a ceasefire," he says. "I had a lot of friends who are not with us any more. "I would like to believe that all will be good. But you can't trust Russia. Never."The large medical bus is operated by Ukraine's Volunteer Army Medical Battalion – known as the Hospitallers. They transport scores of injured soldiers every a 22-year-old medical student, has been working with the team for the last 18 months. She too is sceptical about the chances of a ceasefire: " I cannot believe it, but I really wish it would happen," she says. She tells me that when she first heard the news that the US and Ukraine had agreed to press for a ceasefire, Russian drones were flying over their base, being engaged by Ukrainian air defences. To her, talk of peace is from a parallel says "at least it's good that Ukraine and America are talking again". But as for hopes of any ceasefire, she points to the recent past. "Looking at all the ceasefire calls that we had in the past, those didn't work. How is this going to work?" she fellow medic, Daniel, joined the Hospitallers from Sweden. He says he understands what it's like when a smaller nation is attacked by its giant neighbour. His grandfather fought for Finland against Russia during World War Two. History counts. When Daniel first arrived in Ukraine, he used to ask injured soldiers what they would do after the war. He doesn't any more. "No-one wants to answer that," he says, "because they don't want to be disappointed. They don't dare to hope."Daniel's not ruling out a ceasefire. But he adds: "You can't trust Putin to do anything that's not beneficial to Putin."Ukraine has plenty of bitter experience of negotiating with Russia. France and Germany brokered ceasefires in 2014 and 2015, when Russian-backed forces first took parts of eastern Ukraine and Crimea. They didn't work. Nor did they deter Russia from carrying out its full-scale invasion of Ukraine eight years later. There may be talk of peace, but the men of Ukraine's 67th Brigade are still preparing for war. We watch as they rehearse their drills to evacuate an injured soldier under fire. Most have already had to do it for real. In the distance, we can hear the rumble of artillery. It's just 10 miles to the frontline where they'll soon be returning heard little positive news in recent days. Ukrainian forces are being overrun in Kursk. In August last year, that surprise offensive into Russian territory seemed like a move of tactical brilliance – boosting morale. Now it's in danger of becoming a major strategic setback. Kursk may soon no longer be a bargaining chip for future negotiations, but a heavy burden, with the loss of prized Ukrainian equipment and of the few positives is that the US resuming its military support. That matters to the 67th Brigade, who operate American made equipment. They're conducting their drills with a US-supplied MaxxPro armoured vehicle. Ivan, the driver, who wears a small American patch on his uniform, says he's relieved the Trump administration has now agreed to reverse the block. His vehicle needs regular repairs. "I would like them to keep helping," he Ivan is still unsure as to whether President Trump can be trusted."I have doubts," he says. As for trusting President Putin, he replies: "No. Never." Here, even a temporary ceasefire feels like a long way off.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Iryna "Cheka" Tsybukh, combat medic, posthumously awarded title Hero of Ukraine
Iryna Tsybukh, a paramedic with the Hospitallers medical battalion, has been posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. Source: decree on the website of the Office of the President Quote: "For personal courage and heroism displayed in the defence of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, selfless service to the Ukrainian people, I hereby decree: Iryna Volodymyrivna Tsybukh, a public figure and a crew leader of the Hospitallers volunteer battalion, shall be bestowed the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the Golden Star (posthumously)." Read also: An interview with Iryna "Cheka" Tsybukh, combat medic, 1998-2024 Background: In November 2023, Iryna "Cheka" Tsybukh was awarded the Order of Merit of III degree, and in March 2024, she became a laureate of the Ukrainska Pravda 100, The Power of Women award. Six days before her death, in her last post on X (Twitter), Iryna wrote: "My birthday is coming soon, and I am proud to have lived to be 26". However, Iryna did not live to see her 26th birthday for two days. On 29 May, she was killed during a rotation in Kharkiv Oblast. In June 2024, Zelensky posthumously conferred the Order of Courage of the III class on Iryna. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
