‘Only the brave find happiness’: Paramedic and journalist Iryna Tsybukh died at the front. UPDATED

Suspilne journalist and Hospitallers volunteer medical battalion paramedic Iryna Tsybukh, known as “Cheka,” was killed in the Kharkiv region.

“We can’t believe it. It feels like a dream. It seems that you’ll contact us now and we’ll hear your voice. Yesterday, during a rotation in the Kharkiv region, one of the Hospitallers, Iryna “Cheka” Tsybukh died a few days before her birthday. 01.06.1998 — 29.05.2024. Our words fail to convey our feelings. Nobody believes what happened. This is an indescribable pain and an incredible loss not only for the battalion, but for the whole of Ukraine,” representatives of the battalion wrote.

Her brother posted a letter written by Iryna on his Instagram page today. She wrote the letter in 2023. United 24 Media published its translated version. “To have the strength to be a free person, you must be brave. Only the brave find happiness, and it is better to die running than to live rotting,” she wrote.

Iryna Tsybukh was born on June 1, 1998 in Lviv and graduated from Lviv Polytechnic National University. In 2014, Tsybukh served several front-line rotations with the Hospitallers volunteer medical battalion. In 2017, she began working for Suspilne’s journalism team as a reform manager, filming documentaries, preparing interregional specials, and implementing grant projects. During Tsybukh’s free time, she implemented educational projects in the remote villages of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

In February 2022, after the outbreak of the full-scale invasion, Tsybukh returned to the battlefield as a member of the Hospitallers.

With colleagues from Suspilne media, Iryna Tsybukh won the “Professional Honor” journalism competition in 2021 for the category “Best Publicism Writing in Local Media.” In 2018, she placed as a finalist for “Best Reportage.” In November 2023, she was awarded the Order of Merit, III degree, by the President of Ukraine, and in March 2024 Tsybukh became a laureate of the “UP 100. The Power of Women” award.

Iryna Tsybukh, combat medic, on the left singing with Krutь, poem by Lesia Ukrainka called “Contra spem spero!” (“Hoping without hope”)

She worked on first line of evacuation, closest to frontlines with Hospitaliers in Donbas, killed Ry russia.

She was 25. pic.twitter.com/uEGW1EBML0

— vanya ✙ (@eurovanya) May 30, 2024

If you would like to provide financial support for Iryna Tsybukh’s family, here’s what you can do.

RELATED: The award-winning journalist and soldier Alla Pushkarchuk was killed by a Russian missile strike

Main image: Yuliia Kochetova

Copy editing: Terra Friedman King