KYIV, Ukraine: Almost 1,000 mourners gathered in central Kyiv on Sunday for the memorial service of a high-profile journalist and volunteer combat medic who was killed in action last week.
Iryna Tsybukh, known as Cheka, was a 25-year-old paramedic who was on rotation in Ukraine’s northeast region, where Russian forces launched a major ground offensive last month, capturing swathes of territory and forcing civilians to evacuate.
At her funeral service at the Saint Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery on Sunday, hundreds wore colorful Ukrainian vyshyvankas — embroidered national shirts — and carried Ukrainian flags and flowers.
Her coffin was also draped in the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag.
Part of the Hospitallers volunteer battalion, Tsybukh was credited with saving the lives of many soldiers, often risking her own life to evacuate injured servicemen from the front lines.
“She was one of those who not only defended the country, but also worked tirelessly to encourage others to join, train, and learn how to be effective,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week.
Her volunteer battalion said her death was a “loss for all of Ukraine.”
Last year while serving on the front lines in the eastern Donetsk region, she wrote a farewell letter to be published in the case of her death.
“I am not sorry to die, because I am finally living the life I would like. I will not lie, to feel this indispensable, true freedom, I will have to go through more than one more session of therapy, fears and tears,” the letter, published by her brother, said.
She added: “Be worthy of the deeds of our heroes, don’t be sad, be brave.”
Hundreds bid farewell to Ukrainian volunteer medic killed on front lines
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Hundreds bid farewell to Ukrainian volunteer medic killed on front lines
- Iryna Tsybukh, known as Cheka, was a 25-year-old paramedic who was on rotation in Ukraine’s northeast region
Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado march in cities worldwide
- Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since January
CARACAS: Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado demonstrated Saturday in several cities worldwide to commemorate her Nobel Peace Prize win ahead of the prestigious award ceremony next week.
Dozens of people marched through Madrid, Utrecht, Buenos Aires, Lima and other cities in support of Machado, whose organization wants to use the attention gained by the award to highlight Venezuela’s democratic aspirations. The organization expected demonstrations in more than 80 cities around the world on Saturday.
The crowd in Lima carried portraits of Machado and demanded a “Free Venezuela.” With the country’s yellow, blue and red flag draped over their backs or emblazoned on their caps, demonstrators clutched posters that read, “The Nobel Prize is from Venezuela.”
Venezuelan Verónica Durán, who has lived in Lima for eight years, said Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize is celebrated because “it represents all Venezuelans, the fallen and the political prisoners in their fight to recover democracy.”
The gatherings come at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis as the administration of US President Donald Trump builds up a massive military deployment in the Caribbean, threatening repeatedly to strike Venezuelan soil. Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is among those who see the operation as an effort to end his hold on power, and the opposition has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.
“We are living through times where our composure, our conviction, and our organization are being tested,” Machado said in a video message shared Tuesday on social media. “Times when our country needs even more dedication because now all these years of struggle, the dignity of the Venezuelan people, have been recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Machado won the award Oct. 10 for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado, 58, won the opposition’s primary election and intended to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González, who had never run for office before, took her place.
The lead-up to the July 28, 2024, election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. It all increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the winner despite credible evidence to the contrary.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
Meanwhile, Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in what ended up being an underwhelming protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. The following day, Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term.
