Olena Blizniakova

We meet 31-year-old Vitalii Veres in a hospital ward. On the bed opposite, sits his girlfriend. “I always tell her: don’t let go of me or I’ll get lost,” Vitalii jokes. A few days from now, he will have surgery to prepare a fitting for a prosthetic eye. For now—while he has some free time—he’s working on his social media blog.

We enter the hospital room to meet one of the patients. Before we know it, we’re talking to everyone in the room. They’re all soldiers here, injured on the front line. “You can take a photo of me, but I won’t be able to tell you anything. I don’t remember,” says 23-year-old Serhii. The next day, he’ll be among the first called in for surgery, performed by “Face the Future” Medical mission.    

“It’s all good and well when you get people out alive and bring them to safety,” says Ruslana, a Ukrainian combat medic. “But the hardest thing is when you lose someone in your hands.”

If you ask people how they remember the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many picture scenes at the border— crowds of women and children fleeing Russian bombs. Some will also recall the thousands of men and women who returned from abroad to defend their homeland—including the foreigners who refused to stand by and watch and took up arms to help a country many had never even been to.

Denmark came to Kyiv in force. With its biggest-ever business delegation, the country is deepening defense and investment ties to strengthen Ukraine’s security, resilience, and recovery. In an interview with UNITED24 Media, Danish Minister ​​for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Morten Bødskov, shared how new partnerships and guarantees are turning long-term commitment into concrete action.

When an F-16 pilot took off in December 2024 to protect Ukraine during a massive Russian attack, his only thought was defending his homeland—not setting records. But that’s exactly what happened after he shot down six Russian cruise missiles in a single mission—something never before achieved over Ukrainian skies.