A Russian military court sentenced 54-year-old Ukrainian citizen Olena Ipatova to five years and two months in prison for serving as a medic in a Ukrainian Armed Forces battalion six years before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don found Ipatova guilty under Article 205.4 Part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code for “participation in a terrorist organization,” according to Russian media Mediazona, which cited the court’s press service.

Russian authorities detained Ipatova on 14 March 2025. She was initially held in custody until 2 April, then released on a travel restriction order before being arrested again in the courtroom following her sentencing.

The prosecutor’s office of the Russian-annexed Donetsk People’s Republic alleged that Ipatova served as a “combat medic” in the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Aidar assault battalion from January 2018 through spring of the same year. Prosecutors did not claim she participated in battalion activities after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has been searching for Ipatova since 20 February 2025. Her wanted notice lists Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk Oblast as her place of birth.

The case reflects a pattern of Russian courts imposing lengthy sentences on Ukrainian citizens from occupied territories who resisted Russian forces. The courts typically prosecute such cases under terrorism and “state treason” charges.

In August, the same Southern District Military Court sentenced 20-year-old Daria Kulik from Russian-occupied Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast to 18 years in prison plus a 600,000-ruble fine. The court found Kulik guilty of “state treason,” attempted terrorism, participation in a terrorist organization, and illegal storage of explosives.

In June, the court handed down sentences to a Melitopol family: 29-year-old Artem Murdid received life imprisonment, his partner Hanna Voshkoder was sentenced to 20 years, and his mother Hanna Murdid received 22 years.

She returned to the hell of war, haunted by the life she couldn’t save. A vehicle of the chief military nurse of the Ukrainian 95th Air Assault Brigade’s medical company, Nataliia Vysotska, was hit on a mine, while evacuating a wounded soldier from the front line. 

Only two of the four crew members survived in the blast. Nataliia suffered severe injuries: fractures to her pelvis, leg, and spine. She was classified with a second-degree disability. However, she went back to the front.

“I still remember—we didn’t make it to that wounded soldier… Every mission is a trial,” Nataliia recalls.

Return as a challenge of fate

It wasn’t her first wound. In 2022, she had already sustained shrapnel injuries to her stomach and leg during a shelling, and quickly returned to duty. But the mine explosion proved especially devastating, physically and emotionally. Treatment, rehabilitation, the loss of comrades, and the feeling of unfinished duty. Through it all, one thought kept her going: to return.

“At war, there’s no time to recover after losing a brother-in-arms… You must hold yourself together to remain a professional,” she says.

Unbroken spirit

Recently, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has awarded Nataliia Vysotska the Order of Princess Olga, 3rd Class, an honor recognizing strength, resilience, motivation, and loyalty. But for her, the most important thing is being by her comrades’ side.

“Maybe life has more trials ahead, but I’ll stay as long as I can be of use… When our team manages to save a soldier’s life, that’s what matters. That’s our victory!” she adds.

Earlier, the Ukrainian forces reported that a hundred women who served prison sentences had already joined the ranks of the army. They now fight alongside men, both on the frontlines and in communications, logistics, and medical units. Upon completion of their military service, the court will reconsider their case, and the service may be taken into account as a mitigating factor during sentencing.

They paid the highest price for Ukraine’s freedom. British journalist Colin Freeman, in his book The Mad and the Brave, told the stories of foreign volunteers who joined Ukraine’s International Legion, writes The Telegraph.

Freeman compares the influx of volunteers who rushed to aid Ukraine in the early weeks of the all-out war to the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 when thousands from around the world fought fascism.

He portrays a variety of individuals, from veterans of the Syrian war against ISIS to adrenaline seekers and those fleeing heartbreak.

One striking story is that of British combat medic John Harding, who joined the Azov Battalion in 2018. He disproved Russian propaganda about “national extremists” and endured the horrors of the battle for Mariupol, the siege of Azovstal, and months of torture in captivity.

Another hero is Briton Christopher Perryman, a veteran of wars in Iraq, Somalia, and Bosnia, who left behind a young son to fight the Russian aggressor.

Perryman believed he had no moral right to abandon millions of Ukrainian parents in distress, given his extensive military experience. Sadly, he was killed by artillery fire at the end of 2023.

After more than three years of war, the fates of foreign volunteers vary: some died, some cope with PTSD, and others continue fighting alongside Ukrainians.

Earlier, Euromaidan Press published a story about a former paramedic from Colombia, known as Miguel, who came to Ukraine intending to serve as a combat medic. However, due to the language barrier, he was assigned to the infantry.

Despite this, he never abandoned his mission. Every day on the front line, he saves the lives of his comrades. He is learning Ukrainian by singing Chervona Kalyna, the country’s patriotic anthem, and surviving tactics against Russian artillery.