A Ukrainian female combat medic serving on the southern Zaporizhzhia front took decisive action that saved her unit from encirclement.
Svitlana, who serves with the 128th Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces, destroyed a group of Russian soldiers with a single shot from a grenade launcher during an intense assault involving armored vehicles and infantry.
The incident occurred when Svitlana’s unit found itself without a commander during a Russian attack, Ukraine’s General Staff reports without an explanation of why this was the case.
She stepped into the leadership role, receiving tactical guidance via radio from her battalion commander who was monitoring the situation through video feed.
The medic identified that Russian forces had established a position in a building behind their lines, effectively cutting off retreat and resupply routes. After locating the enemy position just two houses away, she maneuvered around them and fired through a window, neutralizing the threat.
“I asked the guys to hold on and under no circumstances abandon their positions,” Svitlana recalled. “Then I took a disposable grenade launcher and went to meet the Russian assault troops. They had gotten too close – they [Russians] were just two houses away. I fired at the window of the house. The entire group of occupiers remained there.”
She received a training with various weapons systems during exercises with the 230th Separate Battalion of the “Wild Field” Brigade, however here Svitala faced the stark difference between practice and actual combat conditions.
Her actions proved pivotal, as the unit was able to maintain its defensive position. Within days, a rotation was organized that allowed the defenders to withdraw safely from the ruins of Staromaiorske.
“The guys said: wow, you’re crazy. But what was there to do at that moment? Wait until the enemy kills us all?” Svitlana says.
Svitlana joined the military as a volunteer at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, bringing valuable medical expertise from her previous work as an intensive care nurse at Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipro.
Following the death of her son, also a volunteer who was killed near Bakhmut, Svitlana has dedicated herself to saving the lives of her fellow soldiers. She has since returned to her battalion on the Zaporizhzhia front.
