- April 11, 2026
- 3:36 pm
- Ukraine
On April 10, Ukraine once again saw the face of this war.
On April 10, it became known how exactly a family from the Donetsk region was saved, initially reported by volunteer chaplain Vadim Geiko, and later detailed by hromadske. This is about Natalia Martynenko, who independently transported her husband Fedor in a wheelchair from the village of Novoselovka near Kostiantynivka, covering 13 kilometers through a dangerous zone that is regularly under Russian attacks.
This is not just a strong human story, but a concentrate of the entire current war against Ukraine. There is no pathos here, no loud slogans, no beautiful scenes. There is a woman, a severely wounded husband, a road over which enemy drones hover, and an understanding that stopping could mean death.
For the Israeli audience, this plot is perceived especially acutely. In Israel, they understand too well what it means to live between a siren and a decision, between fear and the necessity to act. But even against the backdrop of a habit to military reality, the story of Natalia and Fedor sounds like a blow to the chest, because this is a story not about the front in abstraction, but about a marriage of 51 years, which literally traveled the road of life and death on wheels.
Who first reported this evacuation
The first to publicly report the fate of the couple was volunteer chaplain Vadim Geiko. He wrote that Natalia and Fedor independently left the danger zone near Kostiantynivka until they were met on the outskirts and helped with further evacuation.
Later, hromadske revealed the details of this story and reported that after the rescue, the couple settled in the Kyiv region. Thus, one emotional story from the war zone received a continuation as a documented story of survival, operation, and new life after the horrors of the front.
The words quoted by Vadim Geiko sound especially terrifying: the couple walked along a road strewn with the bodies of people who also tried to escape but could not. Enemy drones flew over them, and the danger did not disappear for a minute. But Natalia did not stop because she had no choice: her husband was dying, and he urgently needed to save his leg, and then his life.
Why this road became the road to survival
What happened to Fedor
Fedor was severely wounded. But, as it later became known, the situation was even more complicated than it initially seemed. The man had previously undergone an amputation of one leg due to diabetes.
After new strikes and injuries, the other leg was affected. However, the reason for the amputation was not only the consequences of the attack. Due to diabetes, his toes began to blacken, and doctors saw a direct threat of gangrene. Therefore, in early March, Fedor underwent surgery and had his leg amputated above the knee to save his life.
This is what gives the whole story an even heavier dimension. Natalia was not just pushing a wheelchair with a tired elderly person. She was transporting a husband whose body was already on the brink, and any delay could have ended fatally.
13 kilometers that cannot be measured only by distance
Formally, it is about 13 kilometers. But in reality, this distance is measured not by a number on a map, but by the tension of every meter.
The woman was transporting her husband along roads that remained under the threat of Russian attacks. Drones circled in the air. Bodies of people who failed to escape lay around. Each subsequent section of the path could have been the last. And all this happened not somewhere in the past, but in 2026, in Europe, on the territory of Ukraine.
Such stories are especially important for readers who follow events through НАновости — Новости Израиля | Nikk.Agency, because it is in them that the true face of war is visible: not only the map of battles, not only destroyed buildings, but also simple human loyalty, which turns out to be stronger than fear, pain, and physical exhaustion.
Natalia did nothing “heroic” in the usual media sense. She simply did not abandon her person. But it is from such “simple” actions that the true moral support of a country that has been living under the pressure of a great war for the fourth year is built.
What happened next: Kyiv region, Hansen’s Miracle Town, and getting used to silence
Where the couple lives now
After the evacuation and surgery, Natalia and Fedor settled in the Kyiv region. They were accepted by Hansen’s Miracle Town — a project that provides housing for displaced persons and helps people start life anew after losing their home, health, and familiar world.
According to the story, there are usually almost no places there. But the executive director, Alexandra Kondrasheva, after seeing the video with the couple, promised to find an opportunity for them. The third phase of the project, founded by American philanthropist Dell Loy Hansen, is already under construction to accommodate more people whose previous lives were burned by the war.
This is the most important part of the plot. Salvation does not end the moment a person is taken out from under fire. After that begins another, no less difficult stage: surgery, recovery, a new environment, a new room, new silence, and the attempt to learn to live again.
Why silence can also be frightening
One of the strongest phrases belongs to Natalia herself. Already after the move, she admitted that they are getting used to the silence: no explosions, no “shaheds”, not even alarms are heard, and it seems strange, even alarming.
In these words lies the whole truth about people who escaped from the frontline hell. The peaceful sound of silence is no longer a natural background for them, but an almost unfamiliar state to which they also need to return step by step. After months of living under threat, a person does not immediately believe that it is truly calm overhead now.
For the Israeli reader, this feeling is also understandable without unnecessary explanations. After war, shelling, and constant anticipation of a strike, silence does not always bring immediate relief. Sometimes it first seems suspicious. And only then does it become something worth surviving for.
The story of Natalia and Fedor will remain in memory not because it is “touching.” It will remain because it has everything: date, place, pain, love, physical effort, volunteer help, surgery, and rare, almost unusual silence in the finale. This is war in its most honest, most human form.