WOLVES OF DA VINCI MEDICS: A QUICKFIRE INTERVIEW WITH THE BATTALION’S MEDICAL SERVICE

In the RBTNK world, a medic is a character with the superpower of Fortitude. The most important, yet hardest-to-acquire superpower. We asked what helps build and nurture it at the stabilization point of the ULF medical service ULF of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves." Our blitz interview was completed by anesthesiologist Daryna Boiko, anesthetists Enei and Dali, surgeon Betsyk and operating-room nurse Mariia Shchebedko.

This material is part of the Superheroes series and a major joint fundraiser by the Vydnokolo Charitable Foundation x RBTNK x ULF. We are raising UAH 500,000 to save lives for one month. In the material, you will see the heroes wearing a limited-edition ULF MED SUPPORT dog tag, which can be purchased to support the fundraiser. Learn more and become a pillar of ULF's resilience here.

Tell us about your work

Daryna: I am an anesthesiologist. I work with anesthetists Dali and Enei on severely and critically wounded patients. We stabilize the wounded person's condition and support the surgeons' work.

Dali: An anesthetist carries out the anesthesiologist's instructions to provide anesthesia. I work with Daryna and Enei. Overall, we are a large team in which everyone is highly professional and deeply committed to their work. It feels great when you do something truly important with people who want to be here and know how to do it.

Andrii [ Dali ], anesthetist with the ULF medical service

Enei: I am an anesthetist, an anesthesiologist's assistant. I am responsible for intravenous procedures and working with severely wounded patients. I work with Daryna and Dali.

Betsyk: I conduct an overall assessment, stabilize the wounded person, and perform all surgical procedures at the stabilization point: stopping bleeding, washing wounds, and conducting all examinations (ultrasound, X-rays) with their interpretation.

Mariia: I am the surgeon's right hand - always beside them when we work with a patient. I have to anticipate the surgeon's next step, in the surgeon's mind :)

What is your mission?

Daryna: Saving lives.

Mariia: To try not to make things worse than they are. *laughs*

Why did you choose this particular role in the war?

Daryna: This is what I do best. Training to become a doctor took 10 years: medical lyceum, medical university, and internship. In civilian life, I was also an anesthesiologist.

Everyone should find what they do best, and use it to benefit your nation.

Daryna Boiko, anesthesiologist with the ULF medical service

Dali: I studied to become a medic, but did not work in the field for a long time. I decided that I could be useful in this way. If you have any useful education, put it to use in the war.

Enei: I have a medical diploma, but I initially joined the battalion as a cook because that was what I did in civilian life. Later, during my service, I realized that I needed to develop in a different direction, because cooking in the military and cooking in civilian life are two different things.

Mariia: When I joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, I had already been studying to become a medic for several years at several state institutions on government-funded places. In other words, the state had provided me with education free of charge, and I felt it was my duty to repay that debt in this way.

Betsyk: I’m a man. There’s a war in my country. I’m young, strong, and have surgical skills, and after working on an ambulance, I also have emergency medicine skills.

Yevhen [ Betsyk ], surgeon with the ULF medical service

What gives you the faith and determination to continue the fight?

Daryna: People - both in our medical service and from other units. And our fallen friends too - because you understand that you’re here for them as well.

Dali: When you see wounded guys who have just left a position where they spent 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 months. I’m sure no medic can use that as a reason to give up and say, “That’s it, I’m f***ing tired.”

You see these guys - they need someone to support them. Who else but us?

Enei: People: those around us, our parents, our loved ones. Motivated people who understand the times and work toward our shared cause are incredibly energizing.

Betsyk: People. During my service, I’ve met many good people who proved they can sacrifice something for a greater goal, not with words but through their actions. Being surrounded by people like that gives me the strength to keep moving forward.

Mariia: It inspires me greatly and gives me faith to know that I’m not alone on this sinking ship. Whenever I feel discouraged and think this is the last straw, I turn my head one way, then the other, and see people around me who keep swimming. That makes me continue.

Mariia Shchebedko, operating theatre nurse with the ULF medical service

What artifacts are always with you and help you keep going?

Dali: A dog-shaped pillow that my fiancée Marichka gave me. It reminds me of my dog Vasylina :) This pillow is always moving around with me, while Marichka and Vasylina are waiting for me in Kyiv.

Betsyk: Anything that has been in my backpack for more than two weeks is already an artifact to me :) There are many of them: a keychain with photos of my family hangs from my bag, I keep letters, and there’s a cat keychain as well as another cat plush toy. I always have something to hold on to.

Mariia: Books, even if I don’t read them. And some cool notebooks. I don’t know where they come from, but there’s always one or two in my backpack.

Enei: Recently, it’s my kombucha culture, Vitalik. I like feeding it, and in return it gives me a delicious summer drink - kombucha :)

What would you like the entire home front to understand?

Daryna: The value of your peaceful life.

Dali: That at any moment, we may switch places. You need to be prepared. If you’re a man, you should serve in the military. If you’re a woman and feel you can be useful here, don’t hold yourself back - it’s all in your hands.

Betsyk: That we are all citizens of Ukraine. Each of us has a duty to defend our country.

Do your utmost on the home front. It’s worth doing your best.

Mariia: What we, as military personnel, are experiencing now will not last forever. The day will come when we return home, and the people there need to be ready for our return, waiting for us.

How do we build a bridge between the home front and the front line?

Enei: I think the rear has to build it through its involvement in the common cause, its understanding of combat medicine, and the development of both physical and mental resilience. Military personnel are doing their job. Although we are very grateful to civilians for their donations and support, in reality, it is always the same people.

Betsyk: Through dialogue. We need to communicate, because without the rear there will be no material support. And without us... well, without us there will be no rear. I wish the rear would think more about these bridges, while we here simply continue doing our work.

What kind of support do you consider most necessary?

Daryna: Military personnel see all the support from civilians: reposts, donations, and messages. Sometimes complete strangers write to me: “Thank you, you saved my father at the stabilization point.” All of this is valuable.

Dali: Support and attention - not even toward us, but toward the guys working at the positions. You can simply thank someone on the street, because everything starts with such small things. And be sure to donate.

Enei: Donations and maximum involvement, based on what a person is good at.

Understanding the timing is very important. Don't distance yourself.

Vlad [Enei], anesthetist with ULF's medical service

Mariia: Actually, any kind of support matters. The worst thing is indifference, when people show neither interest nor respect. A kind word, a repost of a fundraiser, or a small donation - these are already things that evoke positive emotions and give us strength.

Tell us your favorite story from work

Betsyk: This is the kind of work where, when a wounded person arrives and all their vital functions are intact, that already becomes your favorite story. At the last stabilization point, there was a young man with a tattoo on his stomach, born in 2003 or 2004 - and he was covered completely in fragments, but none had penetrated anywhere. You look at him and think: “Well, that's great. The kid got lucky.”

Dali: Once, our director Alina (Alina Mykhailova - editor's note) brought in a wild boar that had been hit by a car. She wanted us to save it and have it live with us (unfortunately, we couldn't, because the boar had a severed spine).

Enei: Before the anesthesia, the guy was sure they would leave his leg intact; he was moving his toes. But after sedation, the surgeons saw that there was nothing to save. They amputated his foot. They woke him up and explained it to him, but he was still coming round from the anesthesia and shouted: “What the f*ck are you doing?? Take a photo of my leg! Irina, show me my leg!!!” :)

In our profession, it is hard to find a cool, pleasant story. But at ULF, there are many happy endings involving animals - they are very fond of them here, and many have already been sent “to the mainland.” Our nurse Mariia nursed a cat back to health after she gave birth to six kittens. Now it is a pleasant moment in the day - you come over, pet her, and recharge.

Mariia: Once, we performed an amputation and prepared the paperwork to dispose of the limb according to all the rules. But our registrar accidentally threw away the referral for the pathological examination. The patient was already due to leave for the next stage of evacuation when the registrar ran up to me in a panic: “Mariyka, I threw away the invoice.” “Which invoice?” “For the leg! Issue a new one.”

Daryna: We have some really nice self-adhesive bandages used to wrap catheters: leopard-print or heart-patterned ones. And the guys choose, for example, brown... Why?? *laughs*

Which achievements of the service are you especially proud of?

Daryna: When I arrived at the stabilization point in 2024, in a small village, it was a small building with one anti-shock bed and a door knocked out so a stretcher could pass through. Now we have an operating room fully equipped with the best equipment available at this stage of care, an anti-shock room with two beds, large refrigerators with blood and the best blood warmers, legal, licensed narcotic medications, a separate treatment room where people with and without medical education work, and a room where the wounded can rest and eat (and soon a television will appear in it).

All of us in the medical service are very proud of our work. We had more than 12,000 wounded people in a year - for a battalion's medical service (if you understand the scale of a battalion, brigade, and corps), that is a huge number. At the same time, ULF developed so actively that people who had worked in hospitals wanted to transfer to us. We have grown enormously over the past year, and now we have no vacancies except for a driver-electrician. I am very proud of all this.

What do you dream of right now?

Daryna: Like all military personnel - to live a normal civilian life in my country, work as an anesthesiologist, because I love it. And for our “neighbor” not to exist.

Enei: About my next vacation, civilian life, demobilization, inner peace. And about russia's downfall - I am really looking forward to it and believe it will happen.

Betsyk: For russia to disappear and for us all to go home :)

Mariia: Like everyone else - that peace would finally come and we could return to our lives.

Dali: About vacation. Probably everyone dreams of a vacation. I dream of my own home - a private house. A large car. I dream of buying a goat for my wife :) I dream of peace.

[Dali's fiancée, Mariia Taraban, is the founder of the Vydnokolo Charitable Foundation. In our interview with her, Marichka says she dreams of a private house and a goat - editor's note.]

If you could imagine becoming any video game character, whom would you choose?

Daryna: Lara Croft is my favorite heroine. She saves lives and solves riddles - that's my favorite kind of action since childhood :)

Dali: Joel from The Last of Us. Because the guy lives in a post-apocalyptic world where there is no money and everything depends solely on your ability to survive :)

Enei: CJ (CJ from GTA 5 :)

Betsyk: Noah from “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.” The guy lives on a boat alone with dogs, and nobody comes near him. *laughs*

Mariia: A character from The Sims, for whom all possible positive cheat codes were entered :)

Raising UAH 500,000 for ULF is our goal together with the Vydnokolo Charitable Foundation. Get a ULF MED SUPPORT dog tag, like Daryna, Enei, Dali, Betsyk, and Mariia. The dog tag is your donation and a symbol that you joined a month of work at the stabilization point, a month of saving lives. Learn more and become a pillar of ULF's resilience here.