Karol Darmoros, Svitlana Dukhovych
Meeting in the Vatican
Yana Zinkevych was in Rome on a working visit, Vatican News reports. She participated in the general audience, after which she personally greeted the Pope. „I thanked the Holy Father for his prayers for Ukraine, for the attention paid to our country, and for supporting the topic of peace and ending the war” – she wrote on social media.
Zinkevych also told the Pope about the work of the “Hospitallers,” who daily save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians at the front. She invited Leo XIV to Ukraine so that he could personally see the strength of the nation and the consequences of the war.
Voice of Ukraine
„We don’t need pity! We are fighting our just fight. A fight until victory. It is the duty of every honest person to support us,” Zinkevych wrote after the meeting. She added that every international gesture of support is of great importance to Ukrainians today.
During her visit to Italy, the founder of the “Hospitallers” also met with the First Deputy Minister of Defense of Italy, Isabella Rauti. The discussions concerned the preparation of a memorandum between the Italian Ministry of Defense, the “Hospitallers,” and Ukrainian institutions. The document is to cover cooperation in tactical medicine, joint initiatives with the Celio military hospital and the Defense Veterans Center, and support for the rehabilitation center being created by the “Hospitallers.”
Saving lives
In an interview with Vatican media, Zinkevych recalled that 1,800 volunteers have passed through the battalion, and since the beginning of the war, over 43,000 wounded have been evacuated. Since 2014, the “Hospitallers” have lost 39 people. Despite increasingly difficult evacuation conditions, the effectiveness of saving the wounded remains very high. “Most people, about 90-95 percent, if they come to us wounded, we almost always bring them alive,” she said.
The strength of service
Zinkevych emphasized that the “Hospitallers” are a volunteer formation, maintained by donations. “No one receives a salary. There are only rotational funds for basic needs during trips,” she explained. For her, the foundation of this service remains humanism, responsibility, and the desire to live in one’s own country. “I do and have done everything so that my family can live here, in their homeland, and continue a normal life,” she noted.
