On March 31, 2022, four helicopters took off from Dnipro. On board were medics who had voluntarily agreed to fly into besieged Mariupol. One of them was military anesthesiologist Oleksandr Demchenko. 

A bunker called “Zalizyaka” became his operating room. Up to 30 hours without sleep, endless surgeries and amputations. Together with his colleagues, he saved those who had already been considered hopeless. Despite the conditions, Demchenko found the strength to document his work. The doctor took photos and videos so that the world could see the truth about Mariupol.

At that time, his wife, Halyna Khodnevych, also an anesthesiologist, was working in Kharkiv under constant shelling. She was saving the wounded in a hospital and waited every day for at least some news about her husband. “There was no time to sit and cry, because there was too much work,” she recalls.

In June, together with the defenders of Mariupol, Oleksandr was captured by the russians. He survived the terrorist attack in Olenivka. He spent 127 days in captivity. Just three weeks after being exchanged, the doctor returned to work!

Halyna had served as a military anesthesiologist for nine and a half years, and at the time of this interview, she was working in Kyiv, in a city hospital.

The couple had long dreamed of their own home. Their wish came true thanks to the Heart of Azovstal program, which helps defenders and their families rebuild their lives after the war and captivity. The interview with Halyna was recorded during the moment she received her own home.