Doctor Oksana Myronenko helps elderly and disabled displaced persons

At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Oksana with her family lived in Bucha. Woman lost her mother due to the war. Her father got injured, and Oksana had to operate on him herself.

After the tragedy, Oksana moved to Prykarpattia and founded a charitable foundation in memory of her mother. Woman told her story to “Ukrainska Pravda”.

Oksana left Bucha with her husband two days after the full-scale invasion started. But her parents stayed in the city. They tried to leave Bucha only on March 4. During the evacuation, Russian troops fired at their car with a grenade launcher.

Oksana’s mother, Nataliia Sokolovska, was wounded in the head and chest and died on the spot. Her father was injured, but he could get out of the car and hide in the nearest shed.

Eventually, Oksana contacted local volunteers, who found her father and provided him with first aid. Man managed to get to Irpin through a Russian checkpoint, and then relatives took him to Kyiv. “When my husband brought my father to us in Kyiv, he was all covered in blood,” says Oksana.

She decided to operate on her father herself in the private clinic where she worked as a traumatologist. “I didn’t have time to look for someone. I knew what I was going for and took a risk,” says the doctor.

Fortunately, the surgery went well, and soon the whole family left Kyiv and went to Ivano-Frankivsk. For some time, they lived with friends and later found a free house in the village.

In Prykarpattia, Oksana, her sister, and her husband became volunteers. They took care of wounded soldiers and civilians from the war zone. 

Soon after, Oksana and her sister Yuliia established the charitable foundation “Our Falcon” in memory of their mother. Other people joined the family over time, and now a team of volunteers works with Oksana and Yuliia. Their foundation cooperates with the Vostok SOS organization, which helps their work financially.

As of October 2022, volunteers have already managed to evacuate more than 500 residents from cities in the war zone. Among them are many people with disabilities or serious illnesses, as well as senior citizens.

For those who cannot leave dangerous areas, volunteers send help. So far, more than several hundred humanitarian packages have been sent, and another 150 people are waiting.

Oksana Myronenko says that supporting people in need helps her deal with her mother’s death. “The war is terrible. I can’t change that. But I will treat and save everyone I can,” the woman states.