Al Jazeera Close Up

A volunteer medical battalion in Ukraine provides first aid assistance and evacuates civilians and wounded soldiers from the front lines. “There are so many injured people, injured physically and mentally. There is simply no chance for us to stop,” says 27-year-old Yana Zinkevych, the founder of Hospitallers, a battalion of volunteer medics in Ukraine. Yana taught herself tactical first aid when she ditched medical school and joined a unit of volunteer fighters in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. It was then, while fighting against Russian forces in 2014, that she realised her mission was to help injured comrades.