Ukrainian Women in War: The Story of Combat Medic Iryna Tsybukh

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By Amitabh Srivastava, Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: While Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin continue their geopolitical chess game over Ukraine, the ongoing war is reshaping Ukrainian society in unexpected ways — particularly for its women.

Many have taken up arms to defend their country; others are using words, art, and education to give meaning to the losses suffered. Among them was Iryna Tsybukh, a combat medic, journalist, and educator who became a symbol of courage and purpose before her death in May, just weeks before her 26th birthday.

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Iryna had even planned her own funeral, down to the smallest details. In a video message to a friend, she said mourners should wear a traditional embroidered shirt known as a Vyshyvanka, while soldiers could attend in uniform. Everyone, she instructed, should learn and sing ten meaningful Ukrainian songs around her coffin.

“Everyone will sing and learn something,” she said. “In short, my funeral won’t be in vain.”

In interviews and social media posts, Iryna spoke often about the responsibility of the living to remember the dead.

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“When we stay alive, we unwittingly become responsible to the dead — to talk and remember what happened,” she said weeks before she was killed. “That is the way to be at peace with ourselves.”

Iryna rejected the traditional idea of monuments to “unknown soldiers.”

“We are different. We know everyone who died for Ukraine,” she said in a YouTube interview. “We will identify all of them. That’s why no monument for an unknown soldier can exist in the Ukrainian format.”

In addition to her frontline work, Iryna campaigned for a nationwide observance of a one-minute silence each morning to honor soldiers and civilians killed in the war. The practice, introduced early in the conflict by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been adopted in some regions where people and traffic stop for a minute every day.

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Wearing her uniform, Iryna joined other activists in Kyiv to advocate for expanding the ritual across the country. She believed the 9 a.m. pause would remind Ukrainians daily of the cost of their freedom.

“The highest value is freedom,” she wrote in a letter later shared by her brother. “To have freedom, you must hold other kinds of values. You need to understand yourself — who you are, what your happiness means, and how you can reach it. Once you have the answers, the most important thing is to keep going.”

For a nation of 38 million resisting a superpower of over 144 million, Iryna’s words captured Ukraine’s determination and resilience.

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According to The New York Times, thousands attended two days of farewell ceremonies in Kyiv and Lviv. Her coffin was laid to rest at a military cemetery in Lviv, surrounded by people singing and drinking tea by a bonfire — just as she had requested.

Before the burial, her brother read from her final message:

“Kisses. I lived, loved, fought.”

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Curated by Humra Kidwai

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