“Every life saved keeps Ukraine in the war.”

Ukrainian hero meets the MOAS medics who saved his life against all the odds

Kyiv, 10 June 2024

It’s not often you get to meet the people who saved your life – especially when everyone else at the time thought you were as good as dead.

On 14 June, Lieutenant Oleksandr “Biker” Voznyi will be reunited for the first time with the MOAS medics who kept him alive in the most challenging conditions after he had sustained devastating battlefield injuries. The team consisted of Stanislav Geranin (anesthesiologist), Volodymyr Vahonin (paramedic) and Serhiy Goldovansky (driver).

A year ago, Lieutenant Oleksandr “Biker” Voznyi was commanding a platoon in the Air Assault Division during an attack on the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia. A shell exploded two metres away from him, shredding his lungs, spine and limbs. A piece of his back was torn out, his left foot was fractured in five places and he suffered heavy blood loss and seven cardiac arrests. The MOAS team performed desperate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in their ambulance while racing him to the nearest hospital for life-saving treatment.

“People had said there was no point resuscitating me,” Oleksandr recalls. “I’d lost too much blood and they couldn’t inject any medicines because my veins were buried. But the MOAS medic somehow believed he could keep me alive. He said he would keep pumping me and transfer me to the regional hospital. I’m extremely grateful to the team. Every day I thank God that I’m alive. I’m so happy my children will not be orphans.”

Last November, President Zelensky awarded Oleksandr the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Third Class, an award given for personal bravery, dedication and courage in the service of Ukraine. He was also awarded medals by the Mayor of Kyiv and the Commander of the Airborne Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for his bravery and selfless commitment to preserving the lives of his comrades.

Oleksandr, who is still undergoing intensive rehabilitation therapy, will be speaking at the launch in Kyiv on 14 June to celebrate the publication of Sirens of Hope: The MOAS Mission to Save Lives in Ukraine, a new book showcasing the heroic work performed by the organisation’s all-Ukrainian teams of medics.

“Every life saved keeps Ukraine in the war,” Oleksandr says. “Medics are so important on the frontline, because they determine whether the fighter will make it to the hospital. People fought for my life for about a hundred kilometres and still saved me. Think how many others like me are on the entire front! If it were not for these desperadoes, who are not frightened by the horrors of war, there would be many more tombstones in our cemeteries.”

MOAS, the international humanitarian disruptor, has been working in Ukraine since the start of the war and has now saved more than 45,000 lives at the medical frontline. It employs 150 teams of all-Ukrainian medics in 50 ambulances supplied with state-of-the-art life-saving equipment.

MOAS receives no government funding and relies entirely on fundraising to keep its $1m a month operation on the road.