A mother of four. A combat medic. They call her “Matushka.”
She didn’t come to war as a soldier.
She came because there were not enough medics — and her battalion was deploying to the outskirts of Kreminna.
Her homeland. Luhansk region.
In civilian life, Natalia was a lawyer, working in local administration.
By 2022, she put that aside and joined Ukraine’s National Guard @ng_ukraine.
She hadn’t practiced medicine for 26 years.
She relearned everything — fast. Because there was no time.
Her call sign — “Matushka” — came from the soldiers.
At the time, they didn’t even know she had four children.
But they understood something else:
she would take care of them like her own.
“The hardest path in this war is the infantry,” she says.
“Where the infantry stands — that is our land.”
Today, many of her fighters are under 30.
Volunteers. Educated. Deliberate.
She calls them “my boys.”
A combat medic’s job isn’t just about wounds.
It’s everything — chronic illness, exhaustion, survival.
But the core is simple:
keep them alive.
Carrying the wounded isn’t the hardest part.
Running under fire isn’t the hardest part.
Waiting is.
Waiting while drones hang overhead.
Waiting when you know someone needs you — and you cannot reach them.
Once, a soldier was critically wounded.
Internal injuries. No access.
She and another fighter saved him over the radio —
her knowledge, his hands.
When he reached the stabilisation point, a doctor asked:
“What did you give him to keep him alive?”
She didn’t.
They did. Together.
She always tries to be the first face they see when they return.
“When the armour opens and you see her — you know everything will be okay,” they say.
“My motivation is my boys.
The way they look at you. The way they believe.”
“They are my shield —
and I am their rear.”
Her family worries. She doesn’t tell them everything.
“I’m fine,” she says.
Because this is not just about today.
It’s about going home.
Liberating Luhansk.
Letting children return to where they were born.
“Hold the line. No step back. No matter how hard it gets.”
Because for her — and for them —
this is still their land.
#Ukraine #WarInUkraine #Frontline #Medics #HumanStories
🎥👇
❗️Emergency appeal, let's save the kitchen. I have visited Ants many times in Kyiv; they're doing essential work. Tonight, they need YOUR help to cover the electricity used during production.
Please donate on PayPal @ [email protected]
Comment: Electricity ⚡️
Our brave warriors from the "SHKVAL" battalion recently lost their deployment point, equipment, and food to a GBU strike. We have a parcel with field rations for them ready to go, but the free shipping program we rely on is exhausted for the month. There are also several other pending orders, as there's non-stop demand for our field rations, and we regularly send parcels to different units.
We need to cover delivery costs ASAP to ensure these heroes aren't left waiting.
🤝 PayPal: [email protected] (Comment: "delivery")
See pinned post for other ways to donate
📦 Goal: Clear our shipping queue and get these parcels to the front.
Even $5 or a simple repost makes a difference!
Thank you for standing with them! 🇺🇦
🐜 We are Ants (or Murashky in Ukrainian) — a volunteer kitchen hub based in Kyiv that has been producing field rations for Ukrainian defenders since 2022.
🍲 Our dehydrated meals are compact, lightweight and only require boiling water to prepare, so they are convenient to carry and use in harsh frontline conditions where cooking isn't possible.
🦅 While we mainly focus on field rations, we also have a Flying Ants department that assembles FPV drones.
💙 Our production wouldn't be possible without our donors — both Ukrainian and international.
Here's how you can support us:
General monobank jar: https://t.co/ngksKGE2WC
🌎 Internationally
PayPal: [email protected] (if you want to support drone production, please comment "Flying Ants"‼️)
Buy me a coffee: https://t.co/yid8gSV5xC
USDT (TRC20) TPYpApTuQRGXFXkmjvx57TuQ9FCWb4ACeH
🇺🇦 Within Ukraine
Volunteer card number: 4441 1144 4560 2095
Kitchen's electricity bill jar: https://t.co/uJ4NyOYwwo
Kitchen rent jar: https://t.co/mkI9UrLUHB
Flying Ants (FPV drones) jar:
https://t.co/AkMkKZUXgf
IBAN UA253005280000026008000026851 ЄДРПОУ 44679086 АТ «ОТП БАНК»
💛 New volunteers are always welcome and appreciated at Ants Kitchen Hub! If you would like to come work with us, please fill in this registration form. Soon you'll be contacted by the coordinator of Ants International Legion. She'll provide information and support you before and during your stay.
https://t.co/1eTAvfYfYH
📰 If you want to learn more about our story, check out these articles on @VolunteeringUA 's website:
https://t.co/REOjY32BE2
https://t.co/r54HdDYNnW
🔗 Links to our other social media (those are in Ukrainian): https://t.co/vCyker7lf2
Slava Ukraini! 💙💛
@M0nstas@joni_askola 🤣 as an Austrian that's the most accurate depiction of our stanze against ru.
Why don't u guys do anything for your own security?
Have u seen this beautiful castle?
Send weapons!
Want to see our gorgeous mountains?
A man is sitting over the body of a woman just killed by a Russian FPV drone.
He himself is wounded and bleeding.
On the white snow, the red stain keeps growing.
These were two civilians who were trying to leave Russian-occupied Hrabovske in Sumy region on a sled, on their own.
The Russians deliberately struck them with an FPV drone.
First, one strike hit the woman.
Then a second drone was used to finish off the man.
I am writing these lines knowing that I am powerless to change what happened. I am reading messages from our soldiers who documented this Russian crime with a drone camera and who themselves cannot bear what they saw, despite having witnessed a lot during this war.
Another Russian war crime, committed by people for whom no laws or conventions of war exist.
The drone pilots were tracking the civilians. Evacuation teams were waiting for them further away from the village. Along the way, water was even dropped to them from a drone.
But the civilians never made it.
Because Russians exist.
I do not know how one can respond proportionally to such crimes.
But I do know who allowed this situation to happen in what was until recently a quiet village called Hrabovske.
Source: kyriienko_press / Telegram
This is the home of Dmitrii after yesterday's strike on Kharkiv.
Dmitrii is the guy I work with to help the guys on the frontline. Now he needs our help.
@RadicalAidForce does a fundraiser for him, pls help!
https://t.co/vRJX8iEltT
I used to think Vitkoff merely sympathized with Putin. But it turned out to be worse: there is a KGB agent working inside the U.S. President’s administration — and even worse, Trump is fine with it. Vitkoff is such a nobody that even the Russians mock him.