“My dream is victory,” - National Guard medic
Marina Ryazantseva with the nickname “Mojahed” - senior lieutenant of the medical service of the battalion of operational purpose named after him. Hero of Ukraine General Serhiy Kulchytskyi of NGU. By the Decree of the President of Ukraine dated March 17, 2022, Marina Ryazantseva was awarded the Medal “For Military Service to Ukraine”.
The war for Marina Ryazantseva began long before February 24, 2022. The woman comes from Debaltseve, where she worked as a therapist. Since then, she has helped the Ukrainian military.
At the end of 2021, Marina started working in civilian medical practice in Kyiv as a family doctor. But with the beginning of a full-scale invasion, she again came to her military unit to do what she already knew best.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russian forces, military medic Marina Ryazantseva, along with her unit, came under mortar fire from the invaders near the village of Horenka, after which a battle broke out with the enemy's sabotage and reconnaissance group. As a result of the rupture of the shell nearby, Marina Ryazantseva received a contusion, but despite this she continued to provide first aid to wounded soldiers and carried out medical evacuation of wounded servicemen and civilians during enemy shelling. In total, during 2022, the woman saved more than 100 lives.
Throughout March, the village of Horenka in Kyiv region was under constant shelling. The village located near Gostomel became a fire frontier, but the enemy could not break through and occupy this settlement. Marina recalled how the occupiers fired on a medical machine.
“The explosion was near me: 12 wounded, many with bleeding, the medical car was not on the move, and people needed to be taken out urgently. We decided to evacuate the injured on the armor. It was one of the few cars that could go. I had to drive several times to Kiev and back, despite the fact that the shelling continued. Locals have asked for help repeatedly. We did what we could, evacuated them to hospitals,” Marina recalls.
On one of the days on the radio station, Marina Ryazantseva heard the call of a moving car of the Armed Forces with a seriously injured person who needed urgent help. They went to meet them, reloaded the victim and transported him to the hospital. As it turned out later, the British journalist of the American Fox News channel Benjamin Hall was rescued. Their team did not reach the shooting location in Irpen, and the car came under Russian shelling. Only one Benjamin was lucky to survive by a miracle. The journalist lost an eye, half a leg, but remained alive and underwent rehabilitation.
After the enemy left the Kiev region, Marina Ryazantseva, together with her unit, went to perform the duties of a medic in other areas of combat operations. In addition, Marina regularly conducts training briefings for fighters.
“My dream is to win. Our victory in the war. Uncompromising, final victory. And that all those who approach her return home alive, healthy and unharmed. To their families, to their friends, to their loved ones,” says Marina.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
