Minnesota first responder returns home after weeks of helping the people of Ukraine
MINNEAPOLIS – A Twin Cities firefighter and EMT is back in the United States after spending almost a month in Ukraine.
Svetlana Vold's harrowing experiences have her motivated to keep fighting.
"My original plan was to be a medic and help people," Vold said.
She wanted to use her expertise as a firefighter and EMT to help the people of Ukraine. But that plan changed as soon as she landed.
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"Russians shoot this ambulance. I think three people dead, including patient," she said.
Vold quickly learned medics were targeted by the Russian Army.
"What they do is they shoot one, waiting when people like combat medics will come…and then shoot them," she said.
So she concentrated on training others, and then hit the road.
"We was like 12 miles from like the Bakhmut area," she said.
Delivering much-needed medical supplies to troops and people living in the hardest hit areas of Ukraine.
"When you go close to the war zone, most likely you will use like gravel roads," she said.
Although scary, some of what she experienced was inspiring.
"Small things, like Ukraine flags will be everywhere," she said.
What she never got used to is the sound of air raid sirens.
"Air sirens every day. You have apps [that] inform you what kind of attack," she said.
And witnessing the end result of some of those attacks. And funerals for soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for Ukraine.
"Every cemetery…you can recognize who's a soldiers, it will be a Ukrainian flag. They make alley from small towns people who dead, and you just like walk and it's so emotional," she said.
Vold says she will never forget the faces of those lost, as well as those who are holding on, hoping for an end to the war.
Vold was born in Belarus. She says knowing the Russian Army trained in her country and invaded Ukraine from there was her driving force to help. She hopes to return to Ukraine in the near future.
