Veteran Paramedic Olena Sharhovska Dies at 40 After Decade of Frontline Evacuations

Olena "Jane" Sharhovska, a paramedic with the Hospitallers medical battalion and a journalist by training, has died. Yana Zinkevych, commander of the Hospitallers, and former colleagues at Novynarnia confirmed her death on 24 October.

Before she ever treated a casualty, Sharhovska worked in media. She held jobs as a journalist, translator, editor and social media specialist across television and print, and contributed to projects for Ukraїner and Osvitoria.

Her medical path began in 2015 as a volunteer with the First Volunteer Mobile Hospital named after Mykola Pyrohov. She later joined the Hospitallers. Zinkevych described how Sharhovska handled the work: "Having mastered tactical medicine, Jane went to evacuate the wounded from the hottest sections of the front line, snatching the lives of our soldiers from the jaws of death on the way to stabilisation points."

The same period put her in the middle of a fight over women's roles in the military. She co-organised the Invisible Battalion March in Kyiv in 2016, where demonstrators asked the government to let women take military posts previously closed to them. As a member of the Women's Veteran Movement, she later pressed for female defenders to receive proper equipment.

Russia's full-scale invasion caught her in Portugal. An injury stopped her from crossing back immediately, so she volunteered from abroad. On 10 September 2022, her birthday, she enlisted.

With the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, she deployed to Bakhmut, Toretsk and Kharkiv Oblast. Her tasks included evacuating wounded soldiers and training other service members in tactical medicine. Health reasons ended her service in August 2024.

Novynarnia recalled "a person of words and travel, with a deep interest in the world and in people." The outlet said she kept raising funds for fellow soldiers and bought vehicles for the front. Her motto, it reported, was: "Do what you believe needs to be done, and then come what may."

Bohdan Lohvynenko, a serviceman, writer and founder of Ukraїner, said he and Sharhovska once lived in neighbouring buildings in Vynohradar and often met in one of their kitchens to talk about editorial matters. He called her a source of support and a driving force behind many processes, while adding that she remained quite harsh towards the unknown.

Zinkevych's tribute and the remembrance from Novynarnia were posted on 24 October 2026.