“The best die”
Ms Vasylchenko attended both funeral ceremonies at a crematorium on a hill in the Ukrainian capital. She is the ex-wife of Daniil Liachkevytch but they remained friends.
Valentyna Nagorna, killed at age 28, served in a medical unit: she rescued wounded soldiers and evacuated them from the battlefield.
His mother, during the ceremony, burst into tears. She then placed her head on her daughter’s closed coffin.
In the first days of the Russian invasion, in February 2022, Valentyna Nagorna taught Lyudmyla Levchenko, 60, the basics of war medicine.
“I will never forget what she told me in the first days: + Do you realize that we will not all survive until victory? She was preparing us,” says Ms. Levchenko, holding back tears.
“We have extraordinary young people, I admired them, I learned from them and they learned from me (…). But the best die,” she adds.
“Do your duty”
Valentyna Nagorna served, like her spouse, in the 3rd Azov Assault Brigade, a large mechanized infantry unit.
Olena Tolkatchova, the head of the Azov Patronage Service, which helps the soldiers of this brigade, describes her as a person who “wanted to help as much as she could.”
Ms Tolkatchova does not hide her anger towards the Ukrainians who are not going to fight, at a time when the army, after more than two and a half years of a very deadly conflict, is struggling to replenish its ranks to resist the forces Russians, more numerous.
According to her, they have “undignified behavior”.
The feeling of having a duty to fulfill united Valentyna Nagorna and Daniil Liashkevych, believes the latter’s commander, who identifies himself only by his code name, “Kostyl”.
He explains that they had only been a couple for a few months: “They hadn’t been together for long but they shared very similar life principles.”
“Like him, she really wanted to get closer to the war.” “She wanted to do her duty and save lives as close to the front as possible.”
In a selfie of the couple, published by Ukrainian media, we see Valentyna Nagorna and Daniil Liashkevych smiling. Him, dark beard, her, hair dyed orange and tattooed neck.
Their story inspires others. A 24-year-old soldier, codenamed “Dzvinka”, had been following Valentyna Nagorna on social networks for a long time.
“I want people to know that Ukrainian youth live in a completely different world. We don’t know and can’t remember what it’s like to have a carefree life,” says “Dzvinka”.
“People under 30 die here fighting for our future,” continues the young woman, present at the ceremony with a group of friends who are all in their twenties.
