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🇺🇦 "I remember the wounds, not the faces": the story of Chernivtsi native Yelena Lanivska, who became a combat medic after losing the man she loved. After her beloved was killed, she became a combat medic and has spent more than two years saving lives on the front line. Her boyfriend's name was Mykhailo. He was a Marine and was killed at the beginning of the war while defending Irpin. That same month, Yelena joined the Hospitallers volunteer medical battalion and later enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She is currently serving in the Kharkiv region. She recalls: "We lived in different worlds. He was in the trenches, while I was at home in a warm bed. When the full-scale invasion began, I was sitting at home and couldn't fully understand what was happening, while he was in the very heart of hell." Yelena learned about his death that evening from his best friend. She didn't want anyone to pity her — on the contrary, other people's tears and cries irritated her. She kept everything inside. When she returned to Chernivtsi, she saw people living ordinary lives, relaxing and laughing. But she felt like a stranger among them. That's when she realized her place was where she was needed — among people who understood her without unnecessary words. She is trained as a paramedic, but she was afraid she would not be able to handle the emotional burden. The thing she feared most was becoming frightened and letting her comrades down. But she endured. Otherwise, she says, she wouldn't still be here. In the Hospitallers, what helped was that no one pitied her — they simply understood. In the Armed Forces, the responsibility is greater, but the essence remains the same. Speaking about fallen comrades, Yelena says: "At first, you simply do your job without emotions. The emotions catch up with you later, when you finally have time to process everything." What hurts her most is when civilians say, "Nothing terrible really happened." Or when they press her for details that her mind is trying to forget. She doesn't remember the faces of the wounded — only their injuries: an arm, a leg, a wound. Drones have made evacuation almost impossible. Before, medics feared artillery strikes. Now, she says, you constantly think about being hunted by an FPV drone. The most difficult case she remembers was the evacuation of a man whose son had been killed earlier that same day. They had been in the same trench when a shell struck the son directly. The father was evacuated with a concussion, but there was nothing anyone could do to ease his grief. According to Yelena, what is needed most on the battlefield are medics, blood donations, and quality tourniquets — not cheap counterfeits. People still do not understand why quality equipment is worth paying for. The contrast between the front line and the rear is like an ice-cold shower. In the morning, you are evacuating wounded soldiers, and by evening, you are sitting in a café eating cake. It is difficult, but Yelena says she has never regretted choosing this path.