From a drone-downing pastry chef to the company commander who carried a wounded soldier for miles on foot: 10 stories of Ukraine's defenders
2026 has been a year of victories great and small for the Ukrainian military, and the whole country has celebrated along with them.
Nazar Daletskyi, a serviceman believed to have been killed three years ago – a funeral had even been held for him – came home alive from captivity.
Vladyslav Polskyi, a company commander in the 475th Assault Regiment (Code 9.2), single-handedly evacuated two wounded soldiers in a civilian pickup truck as Russian drones circled overhead.
The National Guard awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to a woman for the first time – machine gunner Oleksandra Davydenko.
Ukraine's defence forces in the south reclaimed up to 435 sq km of territory. The 3rd Army Corps stunned the public with the successful Operation Vivaldi counteroffensive in Donetsk Oblast.
Ahead of Defenders' Day, Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia (Life) looks back to 10 of this year's most interesting stories about our defenders. Read them all – you won't regret it!
"Four of them couldn't walk": how a Special Operations Forces company commander evacuated a wounded soldier on foot, then went back for his comrade's body
"Eighteen", a company commander in the Special Operations Forces (SOF), would normally have been expected to coordinate the evacuation from the command post. But when four of his soldiers were no longer able to walk independently after a battle and an encounter with an improvised explosive device, he went into the area himself.
"The guys all had leg wounds. There were two uninjured operators left in the group, plus one medic.
That was when I realised I had to go into the area and get my people out. Nobody could have imagined that out of a group of eight we'd end up with four seriously wounded men and one slightly wounded. Four of them couldn't walk," Eighteen recalls.
It took 15 hours to carry the most seriously wounded soldier, Malyi (Little One), to the medics. The young man had severe injuries to his arm and abdomen and a ruptured liver.
"There were moments when he couldn't take it any more and lost heart. He'd say: 'I don't want to. You don't need to carry me anywhere.' But painkillers make all the difference. Obviously he was in a lot of pain. But he did well and held on," Eighteen says.
As soon as Malyi had been handed over to the doctors, Eighteen went back for the body of his fallen comrade, Sava. The rescue operation took five days in all, and the soldiers covered more than 50 km. All but Sava survived.
This remarkable operation proved once again that even in the era of ground robots, those who operate on their own two feet still have the decisive say in battle.
"I thought about tightening the tourniquets and bleeding to death so I wouldn't suffer": how a badly wounded infantryman hunted by six drones was rescued
Herodotus is a private first class in the 3rd Mountain Assault Battalion of the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade. After 18 months fighting in an assault unit, he miraculously survived being hunted down by six Russian drones.
Herodotus was alone in a wooded area. He had already lost a foot, and as he was being evacuated, a Russian drone destroyed the ground robot and mangled his other leg.
He crawled, hid from FPV drones, and even played "cat and mouse" with one of them around a dugout, moving in such a way as to stay out of the Russians' line of sight. His comrades watched him from a drone throughout, dropping water, painkillers and food and trying to find a way to get him out.
Eventually three soldiers came to retrieve him and carried him for about 2.5 km. Herodotus lost both legs, but he survived. He says that in his darkest moments he remembered that he had promised his family he would return.
"There, look at what I've got now instead of legs. Ta-da! What am I supposed to do now – cry? It's already happened... I'm alive, so everything should be all right. Life can be a complete pile of shit sometimes, but we'll get through it," he says cheerily.
"We accepted that we were going to die": the military anaesthesiologist who volunteered to go to the besieged Azovstal steelworks
In spring 2022, military anaesthetist Oleksandr Demchenko volunteered to fly to the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol by helicopter. He realised that it could be a one-way trip. He later learned that the helicopter was shot down on its return journey.
At Azovstal, Oleksandr operated on wounded soldiers in an underground hospital, in cold and damp conditions and with a dwindling supply of medicines: even amputations had to be performed under local anaesthetic.
After one airstrike, five floors of the building above the medics collapsed while hundreds of people were inside.
"We all accepted that we were going to die there, because, essentially, there were no other options," Oleksandr recalls. But he was lucky – he made it out of there.
He survived Azovstal, Russian captivity and the Olenivka prison camp. When he returned home, he went back to medicine.
"I returned to the profession because I love it. I genuinely love my work," he admits.
"I'd serve for another six years, as long as my son never sees all this": the nurse who swapped her uniform for combat fatigues
Before joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Tamila had worked as a nurse at a district hospital for 15 years. Then she swapped her uniform for combat fatigues, eventually becoming head of the medical station of the 3rd Mountain Assault Battalion of the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade.
In autumn 2022, when the brigade was conducting a counteroffensive in Kherson Oblast, Tamila was constantly going out to evacuate the wounded.
"I provided first aid in the vehicle. I had to stop the bleeding from severed arms and legs, apply tourniquets and administer painkillers. The brigade was carrying out assault operations, and guys were dying both on the battlefield and in front of me," she recalls.
Once, two years later, she happened to meet a soldier whom she had once evacuated with a severed arm. He recognised her first: "You were the one who evacuated me back then. Thank you."
Tamila's first contract ended long ago and she could have left the military, but she stayed. She still goes out on evacuations sometimes, even though her current position does not require her to.
She says she is ready to serve for as long as necessary, as long as her 16-year-old son never has to follow in her footsteps.
"I've been in the Armed Forces of Ukraine for six years now, and they haven't been easy years for me – they've been really hard. Because war is the worst nightmare there can be. But I'm ready to serve for another six years, as long as my son never sees all this, as long as he never has to fight," Tamila admits.
"Several times we had enemy infantry jumping into our trenches": the company commander who spent 343 consecutive days on the front line
Three hundred and forty-three days is enough time to celebrate Christmas, New Year and Easter. But for company commander Oleksii, aka Botanik (Nerd), it was the length of time he spent at positions on the Orikhiv front without rotation.
About half of the soldiers in Botanik's company are over 50, and many suffer from chronic health problems. This makes normal rotations almost impossible, so they have to remain on the line of contact for long periods.
Oleksii's longest combat deployment took place in June 2025. The Russians would attack the Ukrainian positions using infantry fighting vehicles, motorcycles and quad bikes and on foot. When they managed to reach the trenches, machine gunners and drone operators would join the fighting. Evacuation crews collected the wounded under fire.
"I tried to make the fighters' time at the combat positions as bearable as possible. I made sure everyone had a chance to talk to their families every day – that helps a lot," the company commander says.
Oleksii finally left the line of contact on 8 March 2026 and immediately went on leave to celebrate his daughter's 10th birthday. Then it was back to the front line.
"I see my primary role as a commander as minimising personnel losses – ideally ensuring there are none at all," he says.
Pastry chef by day, air defence operator by night: the woman from Bucha shooting down Russian drones
Liudmyla, from Bucha, isn't your typical volunteer. By day she makes exquisite cakes and pastries, but after dark, she protects the skies over Kyiv Oblast.
It all began in 2024, when an acquaintance told Liudmyla about the Bucha Witches – a women's unit of mobile air-defence fire groups established as part of the Bucha Volunteer Formation of the Territorial Community. Liudmyla couldn't stand idly by.
The first time she shot down a Russian Shahed drone, the adrenaline rush was overwhelming. Two years ago she knew almost nothing about the military – now she commands a mobile fire group.
Liudmyla does all this as a volunteer and receives no pay. After a night shift, she returns home, puts down her weapon, and gets back to making cakes.
"It can be difficult at times – exhausting night shifts and winter cold when your hands quite literally freeze to the machine gun – but I love this work. Now I see safety in a completely different way and always silently thank those who protect my sleep when I am off duty," the defender says.
"It was eating away at me that my country was at war while I was here": the Mariupol surgeon who returned from abroad to serve in the army
In March 2022, urological surgeon Dmytro Hetmanov was operating on wounded civilians in besieged Mariupol. The hardest moment came when a father carried in his wounded teenage son. The injury looked minor from the outside, but the boy's heart and blood vessels had been virtually torn apart. The boy could not be saved.
On 16 March, Dmytro decided to try to escape the city with his parents and neighbours. On the way, he saw the bombed-out Drama Theatre still smouldering. It took him a long time to get through the Russian checkpoints.
Two years later, Dmytro was working as a surgeon at the University Hospital in Katowice, Poland. He had a job and his life was gradually getting back on track, but thoughts of his homeland never left him.
"It was eating away at me that my country was at war while I was here. Some of my friends had joined the Armed Forces, while I was sitting here enjoying life," he admitted.
Dmytro resigned and left Poland to return to Ukraine. He completed basic military training, signed a contract and joined the Unmanned Systems Forces. Six months later, he realised that he was missing surgery.
Now Dmytro is serving as a surgeon once again, this time with the 4th Medical Battalion of the 3rd Army Corps. He deals with combat injuries, assists with amputations, and has even tried his hand at neurosurgery for the first time.
Although Dmytro's daughter lives in the United States and rarely sees her dad, he does not regret his decision to join the military.
"They actually listed me among the dead": Azov fighter Web on the Olenivka terrorist attack and rehabilitation after three years in captivity
Dmytro "Web" Tishchenko was listed among the dead after the Russian terrorist attack on the Olenivka prison camp. When he came to, he was lying in a pile of metal and concrete, with a punctured lung and a bleeding arm. He crawled out of the destroyed barracks by himself.
"We asked the Russians for at least some medical supplies, but all they brought us was a bag of army sheets. We tore the fabric into pieces and used them to dress our wounds," the Azov fighter recalls.
When he was finally taken to hospital, one of the Russians was surprised to hear his name called out: "You're alive? I'd already got a body bag ready for you."
Web was only 21 at the time of the terrorist attack on Olenivka. He became a soldier at 18, took part in the defence of Mariupol, was wounded in the leg, made it to Azovstal, and from there he was taken into Russian captivity.
Dmytro spent another two months in hospital after the attack, and then he was moved from one penal colony to another. He had to endure torture, cold, hunger, and being made to stand for hours on end.
Because of a shrapnel wound, his leg became so badly infected that the wound simply opened up. In order to be admitted to hospital and avoid losing the limb, he had to pretend to faint.
Dmytro spent almost three years in captivity. In April 2025, he was suddenly taken out of his cell, given clean clothes and driven to an unknown destination. It was a prisoner swap. Web came home on the eve of Easter – exactly when he had dreamed of returning.
Now Web is undergoing treatment for his injuries and the effects of captivity, while also helping other young soldiers who have returned from Russian captivity.
"Sometimes I forget I'm missing a leg": two Khartiia infantrymen who've returned to service after suffering severe injuries
Assault trooper "Bilyi" stepped on a mine 15-20 metres from his position. He applied a tourniquet himself and waited to be evacuated, but the team that set off to retrieve him was attacked by a drone. When dawn broke, he realised that help might not come in time, so he started crawling on his own.
Bilyi crawled for nearly a whole day before two reconnaissance soldiers found him. By then the tourniquet had been on his leg for about two days. Bilyi had realised immediately after the explosion that his leg would have to be amputated.
"Terry" went through a similar ordeal. During his third combat deployment, he stepped on a petal mine hidden in the grass.
"It didn't hurt, I didn't lose consciousness. I opened my eyes and saw these toes lying around. Only the heel was left. I thought, 'That's it. I've had my run,'" Terry recalls.
It took 25 hours to evacuate him. Along the way, the wounded man and the soldiers carrying him were pursued by Russian FPV drones. One drone missed them, but another exploded near the group, injuring all three of the soldiers who were carrying Terry. Despite their own injuries, however, they managed to carry him to shelter.
Both Terry and Bilyi had their legs amputated. Months of surgery, rehabilitation and prosthetic fittings lay ahead of them. Terry recalls that after receiving a temporary prosthesis, he started walking the very next day and soon left his crutches behind. Bilyi was also quick to learn how to use his prosthesis.
"After they cut off my leg, there were moments when I felt a bit down. Then I'd lie there and think: it's all good. I'm alive, I can eat and get around on my own, go to the toilet and have a shower – I can do all of that," Terry says.
Bilyi is equally convinced: "Life goes on. The main thing is that I'm alive."
Their service didn't end there. Less than a year after being wounded, Bilyi got a call from the company's senior sergeant, who offered him a new position. On 12 May, he rejoined the Khartiia Brigade. Terry later joined him.
The two former infantrymen began learning an entirely different role – they became ISTAR dispatchers at a command and observation post. Instead of going out on combat missions, they now monitor the battlefield through screens, work with reconnaissance personnel and drone operators, and pass on information about targets.
"If I sat at home, what would I do? At least this way I can help out here," Bilyi says.
For now, the Khartiia soldiers have no plans to return to civilian life.
Olena Barsukova
Translated by Tetiana Buchkovska and Anna Kybukevych
Edited by Teresa Pearce