War. Stories from Ukraine

Ukrainians tell stories about their life during the war

“We can either resist or die here”. Army doctor Alyona Kushnir, 30, killed in Mariupol

by | 27 April 2022 | Mariupol

 

Illustrated by Tanya Gushchina

 

In March, many people could see the video where a fragile woman, an army doctor, urged all Ukrainians and the whole world to talk about Mariupol. “We do not want to be heroes and martyrs postmortem,” said Alyona Kushnir. On March 13, Alyona turned 30. On April 15, she died.

After the video message was published, Alyona wrote to her cousin: “I rescue children with shrapnel wounds from under shelling, I collect the legs of civilians into plastic bags in the yard.” She also wrote that her ambulance burnt down, so she had no means of transport to get to the wounded. But she was in a safe place helping people with bandages and dressings. 

“We do not want to be heroes and martyrs postmortem.”

By the time Russia invaded, Alyona had lived in Mariupol for a few years. She worked as a medical instructor at Military Unit 3057. Her hobbies were running marathons and painting. She lived in Mariupol with her 9-year-old son and her boyfriend. They planned to get married in May. 

Her son was evacuated from Mariupol on the first days of the invasion. Alyona’s relatives who tried to persuade her to evacuate and save her life received the same answer: “I’m a doctor, I’m needed here.”

Alyona grew up in the village of Moroziv, Khmelnytsky Region. “The place resembles the Carpathians. I remember climbing cherry trees as a child. On St. Andrew’s Day, we took wickets off the boys’ houses and could carry them as far as another village. We were carefree as kids,” says Alyona’s school friend Victoria Baryshevskaya. “We lived. We simply lived our lives,” says her other friend, Angela Poberezhna. “Once I opened my textbook, and there was a kid’s writing saying, ‘Whom does Andriy love?’” smiles Alyona’s cousin who is seven years older than she.

 

 

Alyona’s childhood friends say that she wanted to become a doctor since middle school. Alyona’s mother died when the girl was in the 9th grade, and her family had a low income, but the girl managed to enroll in medical school. After graduation, she worked at the Khmelnytsky Hospital, and in 2016 she moved to Mariupol.

Since the invasion started, Alyona’s friends often messaged her. When she couldn’t respond, they were calmed by the fact that she was online. “I see you online shining like a star, and I know you are alive,” wrote Angela. Alyona answered that she was fine, that they were performing surgeries in the basement, suturing the patients without anesthesia. Once she wrote to her friend: “Birdie, I don’t think I will ever be able to live the way I used to”. 

“They call me here a 40-kilo-girl, with 20 of those kilos being balls of steel.”

“We used all kinds of messengers,” says Andriy Fedorov, Alyona’s cousin. He demonstrates the messages. None of Alyona’s messages show fear. They show fatigue, exhaustion, indignation, and sometimes irony. On March 31, she wrote on social media: “I like what Arestovich said, ‘We cannot provide help, get your munition in battle.’ Maybe he would like to show us how to do it himself? Let him come to Mariupol!” She wrote to her brother: “They call me here a 40-kilo-girl, with 20 of those kilos being balls of steel.”

On March 7, Alyona called late at night. 

“Her son had already gone to bed when Alyona called and said that Maxim was gone. She found her boyfriend’s body somewhere near the military unit building in a plastic bag… It’s hard to pick the words of support in a situation like this, but she bore it bravely,” says Alyona’s cousin about her fiance’s death. 

Alyona helped not only soldiers but also civilians. Andriy remembers her story about visiting a wounded man in a basement. His leg had already been amputated and he suffered from gangrene. While providing medical assistance, Alyona already knew that the man wouldn’t survive. “There must have been more than one person in the same state. Perhaps she published the video message out of despair and helplessness. She was trying hard and doing all she could, but it was clear that the whole world had to intervene urgently,” says Andriy.

At the end of March, the President of Ukraine awarded Alyona the medal For Courage, III degree. She wrote to her brother:

“Thank you, brother, I’ll definitely come back!!! I’m glad that you are proud of me. Here I’m in hell, but it doesn’t matter. We’ll stand firm!!! Ukraine will stand firm!!!”

Andriy found out that she had died in the morning on April 15. “There was the news that the Russians had dropped an anti-bunker bomb, and it ruined the three panel floors. The debris buried the bomb shelter. At 10:10 p.m. she was still online.” He shows the last message he was able to send to his cousin via Telegram on April 14: “Hi, how are you?” And no answer over a few weekends. The user was online more than a week ago.

Andriy scrolls the message line further up and finds his text: “We’ll fight till the end! We’ll return with our shield or on it!” He says that although those words are his, his cousin could have written the same. “Alyona is an example of courage and heroism for all of us.”

 

Translated by Tetiana Vyshnevska



More stories