Name: Yulia Shevchuk
Age: 24
Education: Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, Kyiv Medical University of UAFM
Profession: Paramedic, student
Did you know? Shevchuk was awarded the state medal “For Saving a Life” from President Petro Poroshenko
Yulia Shevchuk, 24, has been to the war zone many times, but the first thing that comes to her mind when she remembers the Donbas is the taste of homemade cupcakes she tried when she was in the frontline village of Zaitseve, control of which is split between the government and Russian-led forces.
She says the food in eastern Ukraine is what impressed her the most, but she certainly wasn’t there for the cuisine: From 2015, she started traveling to the war zone as a paramedic, and there rescued dozens of wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
“My grandmother always wanted me to become a doctor,” Shevchuk said. “We had strong medical background at school, but later I decided to follow in my parents’ footsteps and study cybernetics (the scientific study of how humans, animals and machines control and communicate with each other.) But I managed to tailor my thesis to a medical theme anyway.”
When the EuroMaidan Revolution erupted in late 2013, Shevchuk quickly joined in the protests that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014. She worked at the protesters’ information center and once helped an old friend who was wounded during clashes with the police. Later, she underwent first aid training.
“Feeling ashamed” for not putting her new skills to use, she decided to travel to the war zone, first to work as a dental assistant, and then as a paramedic.
“I’ve been there at least 10 times,” Shevchuk said, adding that the most challenging thing was to let her parents know where she was going. “I didn’t want them to worry much.”
So her parents never knew Shevchuk had been injured in a mine explosion in early 2016 until she returned to Kyiv for treatment. She suffered head wounds when her medical team ran over a mine near the Mayorske checkpoint in Donetsk Oblast — they were going to pick up a wounded soldier when their vehicle hit the mine, which shattered the windshield.
“I felt glass on my face, I spit some of it out, and cried,” Shevchuk recalls. She fainted when she got out of the car and then could barely give first aid to the soldier. “I gave a bandage to our driver and asked him to wash the soldier’s wound, because I couldn’t even see properly.”
After she recovered, Shevchuk felt she had to study medicine. She’s now enjoying student life again, but the effects of her head injury prevent her from going back to the Donbas and make it difficult for her to study Latin, a discipline required for every medical student.
But she is not giving up. “I have too much energy to feel depressed,” Shevchuk said.
