Yuri Kuznetsov calls himself a “homebody”, but has not left his job for a year.
On March 7, 2022, no one came to replace the 52-year-old surgeon after his 24-hour shift at the Central Hospital in Izium in eastern Ukraine. Many of his colleagues no longer came there – the bridges were destroyed, the city’s transport system was paralyzed. Others fled to safer areas.
Since no one else could treat the sick and wounded in the city, doctor. Kuznetsov was in the hospital, lived in a room in the basement and worked around the clock.
For the first six weeks, he had only one nurse to help him.
During the attack, Dr. Kuznetsov covered the sick with mattresses to protect them. The hospital was half destroyed by bombs and had no electricity or heating. Finally dr. Kuznetsov with the sick in the basement to protect them from the cold wind blowing in the ruined building.
But the temperature in the basement was only 2-3°C. And with just a few Dr. Kuznetsov sometimes works in complete darkness.
There was no anesthesia, resulting in many patients having to remove rocket fragments without painkillers.
“People who could not be helped, I especially remember,” said the doctor. Kuznetsov. “The city is small and I knew some of the patients personally.”
During the five-month Russian occupation, there was no internet connection in Izyum. Many people died calling their loved ones from the only local answering machine. Dr. Kuznetsov did not maintain contact with his wife and two children for a long time, which he called “almost unbearable.”
“There were many difficulties, but somehow we overcame them,” he said.
“When I was not well or when I was depressed, I remembered the words of a woman. She said, “Thank you for staying. When we heard that the hospital was open, we knew we hadn’t been let down. We understood that the city is alive and will live.”
Izyum was released in September. Since then, the Olena Zelenska Charitable Foundation, founded by the first lady of Ukraine, has been helping to fund the renovation of the hospital.
“All Ukrainians are now contributing to the future victory,” Zelenskaya said. I.
“We admire our doctors, teachers and everyone who continues their work on the humanitarian front, and the defenders on the military front are fighting for our freedom.”
She paid tribute to the teachers who “gave knowledge to their students”, noting in particular Tamara Umanskaya, “who taught classes even during the bombing” in Kreminna in eastern Ukraine.
“She had to flee the war twice – in 2014 from Lugansk, and then in 2022 from Kremennaya,” Zelenskaya added.
“Despite all the difficulties she has had to face, she is passionate about her work.”
She also praised Dr. Kuznetsov and said that he “saved thousands of lives” in the then occupied Izyum.
Her foundation has sent out laptops to teachers, provided water purification systems to assistants, and plans to build the “biggest hospital” in eastern Kharkiv region.
“My foundation is doing everything possible to support all these heroes,” she added.
“Our future depends on all our efforts.”
Before the war, 42-year-old Yulia Kortyshko taught at an elementary school in Severodonetsk in the east of the Luhansk region. The city was under heavy shelling from the very beginning, and Mrs. Kortyshko’s apartment was destroyed by a direct hit.
After 30 “impossible” days in the basement without heat, light and food, Mrs. Kortyshko evacuates with her husband and son.
After they settled in the Dnieper, Mrs. Kortyshko began to contact her students. She didn’t have a laptop, so she started giving virtual classes over the phone.
“I will never forget our first online meeting,” she said.
“How glad we were to see each other. Nobody could hold back the tears. How my students grew up after the horrors they went through.
Soon children from other schools joined her class.
“I not only taught, but also tried to support and calm everything down,” says Ms. Kortyshko, who worked with the Ukrainian public organization Osvitoriya.
By the end of the school year, all her students were on top and ready to move on to the next class.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian railway was a lifeline for the population during the war. He saved four million Ukrainians and delivered emergency supplies and humanitarian aid across the country.
Natalya Kudrich, a 37-year-old train conductor from Lviv in western Ukraine, helped evacuate people from cities like Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Mariupol in the south.
The 40-person carriages held up to 300 people, who were often “difficult to calm down” and “confused, frightened and distressed,” she said.
The railway is also an important strategic goal for Russia.
“We regularly come under fire,” Ms. Kudrich said.
“We are constantly reminded that we cannot return to our families alive.
“But we never thought about giving up. As workers, we are like family. We joke, tearfully laugh and cheer each other up when nerves get the best of us.
“After all, we are not just the “second army of Ukraine”, we are the same people as you are.”
Source: I News
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.