You can write books and shoot movies about Victoria SHYNKARENKO from Rivne. She is a well-known volunteer, the founder of the public association “Help for the Army Rivne”, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, a member of the Council of Veterans of Ukraine at the Ministry for Veterans Affairs, the director of the communal institution “House of Veterans” of the Rivne City Council.
Under her leadership, the “House of Veterans” has turned into a veteran’s space, where thousands of people find support and help. Dozens of visitors come here every day and people are constantly calling from different parts of Ukraine: officials, medical institutions, servicemen, relatives of the deceased soldiers, volunteers, sponsors.
Someone is asking for urgent help with military equipment. Someone needs papers to verify being wounded in action. And some seek help with finding a missing husband, son or brother in the war, etc.
She drove herself, picked up the wounded and the ‘two hundredth’
– The war for me began in 2014. Back then, one of our tasks was to search for tourniquets around the world, – says Victoria. – I traveled to Eastern Ukraine on my own – delivered cars, including ambulances. Different situations arose. During one of the trips in January 2015, our military personnel got into a semi-encirclement. During battle, 11 people were injured, three of them were in serious condition. It so happened that there were not enough medics. I had to provide medical assistance to the boys. Fortunately, everyone survived.
– Soon you made the decision to sign a contract with the Armed Forces?
– Yes, I made that decision on my own. I told my relatives: “Nothing will change for you. I’m never home anyway. You are already used to the fact that I often go to the East.” I signed a contract with the 130th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion, which we previously looked after. The volunteer car was converted into an ambulance. I drove it myself, evacuated wounded and “200s” (killed in action). Later, I joined the 44th Artillery Brigade. Then I was transferred to the 54th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion, in which I served until 2018.
She ‘ate’ the brains of many officials
– Victoria, were you the initiator of the creation of the “House of Veterans”?
– The idea to create it arose at the end of 2014, beginning of 2015. During that period, I persistently urged many officials: ‘We must establish the House of Veterans!’ Thousands of military personnel or members of their families passed through our volunteer warehouse, which was then located on Knyaz Volodymyr Street. Everyone had to be helped, everyone had to be listened to. I often answered calls until three in the morning.
Thinking of creating a “House of Veterans”, I was wondering how it works in the United States. My friend’s husband was a personnel officer who spent some time in the US. I got valuable information from him about the veterans movement in America. There are veterans’ clubs that are exclusively for their members. Behind closed doors, you will not only be heard, but also understood. Because they talk to you according to the principle of “equal to equal”.
Often answered calls until three a.m.
It took a long time to create the “House of Veterans”. When I was discharged from the army in 2018, I came to the mayor again: “We need a veterans space! Because the number of veterans is increasing!”. In the end, we were allocated space on Lyubomyr Huzar Street – terribly neglected. The amount of work in the space of 220 square meters was huge. We began to work on it with the help of volunteers, military personnel, and relatives of fallen soldiers. NGO “Rivne Razom” helped a lot with the repairs and furnishing of the premises. Installed an electric meter, autonomous heating. Now we have a nice office.
At that time, a coalition of veteran spaces began to form. Before that, everything was done by the volunteers.
Daily work without a schedule
– With the full-scale Russian invasion, it became clear that “Houses of Veterans” must take on even greater responsibility for providing assistance to our defenders, right?
– The full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine was not like war, say, in 2015-2016. It is much more damaging, terrifying.
Aviation was not used then. By the way, six months before the Russian attack, I wrote a post that war was inevitable! Back then, many people advised me not to panic. Our soldiers also began to talk more often among themselves about the inevitability of war.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we and other like-minded people from the volunteer and medical sectors, have deployed 4 ambulances. Thanks to them, it was possible to evacuate the wounded and civilians from the temporarily occupied Kyiv region. Currently, there is only one ambulance left that transports the wounded between hospitals. Others are at the front lines.
Currently, the main direction of our work is psychological, legal assistance, social support. We manufacture drones, evacuate fallen Heroes together with the humanitarian project started by the Armed Forces of Ukraine “On the Shield”, provide medical support for the wounded, etc.
The mobile group visits communities
A mobile group that travels to communities works at the “House of Veterans”. Usually, this is a lawyer, a psychologist and a social worker. We got a car for these trips thanks to “Space of Opportunities”. “Ukrnafta” and “Coalition of veteran spaces”.
Although we are a city of Rivne institution, when we are approached from Rivne region or even from other regions, we do not refuse. Because we do not divide soldiers into “ours” and “others”.
“House of Veterans” signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the State Emergency Service. We recruit people for medical courses, and their qualified instructors conduct training.
The communication platform was created thanks to a decade of cooperation with the military
I also would like to say something about sponsorship. We are sincerely grateful for the support provided by “Revival” Foundation. The Ukrainian diaspora in the USA provides a lot of help. In particular, the group of activists “Lituny” from San Francisco, buys medicine and other humanitarian aid. There is a strong volunteer group “Angels of Mercy”, created by the Ukrainian community in Portugal. We are also sincerely grateful to our compatriots living in England. Recently we received parcels with thermal imagers, optics and other devices from our friends from the USA.
Because of the ten years long cooperation with the military, I now have a large communication network. I maintain contacts with many military officials, state bodies, and medical institutions. This makes it possible to solve problems quickly and efficiently.
Veteran spaces play a big role during the war. And this is recognized by the government at all levels. Delegations from different cities and regions come to our institution to learn from our experience.
‘Veterans should not adapt to us, but we should give them everything’
– You are a member of the Council of Veterans of Ukraine at the Ministry for Veterans Affairs. Can it be said that this body is effective and solves urgent issues?
– For some time, the Ministry for Veterans Affairs was completely ineffective. But the veterans managed to organize themselves. Currently, Ukraine has a powerful coalition of the “Space of Opportunities” organizations. It includes 26 centers. We now need to up-size, to increase the number of centers throughout Ukraine. Recently, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a case manager for veterans.
A coordination headquarters headed by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has been created. It really affects the solution of current issues. If earlier your problems could get lost in some ministry, now you can’t say that. Because all ministries are present in the coordination headquarters.
We still have a lot to do for veterans. The war continues, and the number of veterans is growing. Society must be prepared for the fact that approximately 30 percent of the population will belong to the veteran community. Therefore, we are now teaching people how to communicate with veterans: how to thank them, how to provide psychological help, what could be a trigger.
Veterans should not be adapting to us, but we should give them everything they need to make their lives easier – find a job, help open their own business, etc. There are already large corporations, among them Ukrnafta, which create job maps primarily for veterans and the disabled.
The US experience is valuable for us. Their Ministry of Veterans Affairs is second in funding after the Ministry of Defense. The first step has already been taken – the Ukrainian Veterans Fund was created.
‘The whole world knows about us’
– You initiated art therapy classes, an exhibition of paintings, which have already been seen in many countries of the world. Tell our readers about it.
– I graduated with honors from three educational institutions: I’m a lawyer, artist and psychologist. The art therapy project, figuratively speaking, is our “child”. In 6 years we organized 272 art therapy classes, where wounded soldiers, mothers and wives of fallen soldiers had an opportunity to heal and find relief by drawing and painting.
More than 3,000 paintings, created by project participants, have found their place all over the world. They were seen at exhibitions in Ireland, Australia, Portugal, Spain, England, France, Poland, the USA. During such exhibitions, auctions are held – the funds collected from their sale go to the support of the Armed Forces, to purchase vehicles in particular.
Our officials present paintings created by the project participants to foreign colleagues and partners. For example, the President of Lithuania, many American congressmen, mayors of cities of various countries have them.
The picture, created by one of our brave soldiers, Mykola Hradecky, was presented by our veteran delegation to the Washington Hospital during a trip to the USA. This is artistic diplomacy. It is a thread that connects Ukraine with other countries
There is a lot of work ahead, which will last for more than one generation
We help to organize the showing of films abroad about the war in Ukraine. In particular, a documentary about Ukrainian women who went thru Russian captivity and are living witnesses of Russian aggression, gained wide publicity. The film “The Path of Generations” directed by Mykhailo Uhman, the short historical documentary film “UNBREAKABLE” and others have received good reviews from the audience. This is how we show ourselves so that the world knows more about us, about our struggle. The reaction is good: “Oh, this is Ukraine!”.
By the way, many directors and documentarians come to Ukraine from abroad. In particular, from Poland, the Baltic countries. They also visit our “House of Veterans”.
I myself like to draw. For example, red poppies on a gray background were drawn after the boys died during their combat mission; the next day, the car was to be delivered to those soldiers.
I presented my paintings to the units in which I served. Icons occupy a special place among my works. One of them – the face of Archangel Michael – was placed in a chapel in the East of our country. Unfortunately, the chapel was destroyed by enemy. But we managed to take this icon to a safe place.
There is a lot of work ahead for more then one generation. We need to move forward together, towards Victory!
