1989–2015
Ihor Zinych
Combat medic, Hero of Ukraine
Why did his comrades call a medic “Psykh” - “Crazy”? Paramedic Ihor Zinych from Rokytne turned down rotation out of Donetsk airport four times because he would not leave the wounded behind. Hero of Ukraine, posthumously, 2015.
Key accomplishments
- Trained as a paramedic (Bila Tserkva Medical College, 2009) and worked on the ambulance service of the Rokytne district hospital
- Mobilized in 2014; junior sergeant and medic of the 3rd Battalion, 80th Separate Airmobile Brigade
- From 17 December 2014, treated the wounded in Donetsk airport's new terminal; between 16 and 19 January 2015 alone he helped at least fifty soldiers
- Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the Gold Star (decree No. 582/2015 of 14 October 2015, posthumously)
Why “Psykh”?
Ihor Zinych’s comrades had their reasons for the call sign “Psykh” - roughly, “Crazy”. Some said it was because he kept joking and stayed cheerful in the worst of the fighting. Others said it was because he fought for every wounded man as if his own life counted for nothing.
Ihor Zinych was born on 6 September 1989 and grew up in Rokytne, a small town in the Kyiv region. In 2009 he graduated from the Bila Tserkva Medical College as a paramedic and went to work on the ambulance service of the Rokytne district hospital. In 2014 he was mobilized: Junior Sergeant Zinych became a medic in the 3rd Battalion of the 80th Separate Airmobile Brigade.
A first-aid post in the terminal
Zinych arrived at the new terminal of Donetsk airport, where the defenders known as “cyborgs” were holding out, on 17 December 2014. He set up a first-aid post and treated the wounded under fire, when there was no way to get them out. Four times he refused to be rotated out, because he did not want to leave the men. Between 16 and 19 January 2015 alone he helped at least fifty soldiers. When he was wounded in the head himself, he bandaged his own wound and kept working, and he refused to leave until the last of the wounded had been evacuated.
Junior Sergeant Ihor Zinych was killed on 20 January 2015 under the rubble of Donetsk airport’s new terminal. He was 25. That same day his fellow 80th Brigade soldier Petro Polytsiak and Ivan Zubkov were killed there too, while Ihor Branovytskyi was carrying the wounded out of the same rubble.
Why it matters today
Ihor Zinych took what he had learned on the ambulance in Rokytne to the war, and under fire he did more than his post asked of him. He would not leave the wounded even when he could have gone, and dozens of soldiers got help from him. His story shows how much one person can do who knows the job and won’t abandon those in need. He was made a Hero of Ukraine posthumously.
