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Stunned, bleeding, disorientated and amazed at surviving a double landmine blast inside their armoured ambulance, the Ukrainian medical team had lost their radio and their bearings.
They knew a Russian ambush team was close and they had to get out of Niu York, near Donetsk, fast.
Their leader, Rebekah Maciorowski, a volunteer from Colorado, didn’t see the Ukrainian drones overhead that were flashing their beacons to lead her to safety. It was broad daylight.
Russian drones could also see them, they knew as they scuttled into an abandoned building. They were in the worst of military predicaments – a total loss of control.
“Getting blown up was not so traumatic compared to the situation that we were in with no comms. No comms, you know, in a grey zone, no communications, no navigational reference,” says Rebekah, 31, a permanent frontline medic in Ukraine since March 2022.
Yet even more traumatic was hearing her own president turn on Ukraine’s president and switch sides, to backing the Kremlin.
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