A medic who gave up a promising Wall Street career on to serve on the frontlines in Ukraine has told Sky News it was the “easiest decision she ever made”.
Viktoriia Honcharuk said she was “living the American dream” with a fledgling career in investment banking when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
But seeing how her homeland resisted the advance of Putin’s “special military operation”, she was inspired to return home and take up a medical role on the frontline – despite her fear of blood and needles.
Speaking to The World with Yalda Hakim, she said: “Everything was quite good in my life, but then Russia attacked my country. My mum, my dad, my sister… they all joined the resistance as soon as they could.
“They said, look, we’re not going to go anywhere… we’re going to fight for our home, our town. And that was very admirable – that inspired me a lot.
“After a couple of months helping from far away, I said, well, I cannot also stand back. I cannot watch Russia, the biggest country in the world, attacking my country.”
Despite the misgivings of her friends in the US and even her own mother, Victoria made the decision to return home, and called her sister with some questions.
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“She was like, why are you asking this?
“And I’m thinking: I’m ready to go back to Ukraine and I want to join the army, and it’s going to be, I think, something in medicine.
“And she just took like five seconds. She said, ‘okay, I’ll put you in touch with the right people’.”
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She added: “A lot of people think it was a difficult decision to leave a good career, good life, and go back to Ukraine and go to the frontlines.
“But looking back… I think that is the easiest decision I ever made.”
After a “couple of days of training” Victoria was deployed to the frontlines, but she would not only be helping her countrymen.
“I was afraid of blood and needles before the invasion,” she admitted. “But, at that point I just realised this is something that needs to be done.”
Among the thousands of people she’s treated, are Russian prisoners of war.
She said: “It’s something that we have to do, right? I don’t get to choose who I have to work with.
“We’re following the Geneva Convention. We have to treat prisoners of war, Russians.”
She added: “You get to speak with them… and understand that Russia is not going to stop where what they’re doing right now.
“They are ready to go further and they are preparing for something bigger.”
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Viktoriia, who has now been painted by British artist Max Denison-Pender, believes it is the actions of ordinary Ukrainians that have staved off Russian domination.
She said: “If we were all to say ‘this is not my war’, I think Russia would be pushing through the rest of Europe at this point.
“But just because of this, like men and women in Ukraine have decided to stand up to a bully and join the resistance.”
