1998–2024
Iryna Tsybukh
Journalist and combat medic
A journalist and manager at Suspilne who went to the front as a paramedic from the age of 17. In the full-scale war she led a Hospitallers battalion crew, evacuating the wounded from the front line. Killed in Kharkiv region on 29 May 2024, two days before turning 26. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
Key accomplishments
- From 2015, a military paramedic in Donbas; from 2022, head of the 5th crew of the volunteer Hospitallers battalion
- Manager at Suspilne public broadcasting (from 2017); educational media projects for children in remote villages of Donetsk and Luhansk regions
- The documentary “Distance” about children from remote villages in Donbas (2022)
- Order of Merit, 3rd class (2023) and Order for Courage, 3rd class (posthumously, 2024)
- Hero of Ukraine (posthumously, Decree No. 144/2025)
Who she was
Iryna Tsybukh was born in 1998 in Lviv. She studied at Lviv Polytechnic National University and later at the Kyiv School of Economics, on a master’s program in public administration. As early as 2015, at seventeen, she began traveling to Donbas as a military paramedic.
Her story
In 2017 Iryna joined Suspilne, Ukraine’s public broadcaster, as a manager of its regional broadcasting reform. She ran educational projects in remote villages of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, set up media centers for children there, made documentaries and worked as a media trainer. On 22–23 February 2022 she presented her film “Distance”, about children from remote villages in Donbas, in Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk. The next day the full-scale invasion began.
Iryna returned to Kyiv region and joined the volunteer Hospitallers medical battalion, where she took charge of its 5th crew. The crew worked at the first stage of evacuation, taking the wounded straight from the front line. Iryna chose to remain a volunteer: she explained that the Hospitallers cover crises wherever units are short of medics or vehicles. She also spoke often in the media about the work of combat medics and called for the fallen to be honored with dignity. In 2023 she was awarded the Order of Merit, 3rd class.
Iryna was killed on 29 May 2024 during a rotation on the Kharkiv front, two days before her 26th birthday. Her farewell was held in St Michael’s Cathedral and on Independence Square in Kyiv, and she was buried at the Field of Mars in Lviv. She was posthumously awarded the Order for Courage, 3rd class (2024), and on 26 February 2025 the title Hero of Ukraine.
Why it matters today
Iryna Tsybukh served in two ways: telling the truth about the war and saving the people fighting it. About remembrance she said: “Honoring is not for the fallen, but for those who will go on keeping their memory.” In her honor, Lviv holds Chekafest, a charity festival whose proceeds support the front.
