Self-respect leads to PDMSh. And so do ads and an inner voice

Vlad “Alis” is a surgeon who is completing his internship and plans to be a traumatologist. He joined PDMSh after hearing an ad on Radio ROKS that volunteer doctors were needed at the front. “My inner voice told me to do it – to apply.”

According to him, his motivation was the desire not to lose touch with today’s reality, which is the war. Because in peaceful cities, you visit cozy coffee shops, return home from work, and rest in pristine, snow-white beds. “Sooner or later, you forget about the realities,” says Vlad and adds another, “no less important” reason why he is at the front: “To sustain self-respect.”

Vadym “Watson,” an ambulance paramedic in civilian life, says essentially the same thing about his motivation, only briefly: “I’m here because this is probably where I should be.”

As the full-scale war burst out, Vadym volunteered. Then he tried to sign a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine but was refused, as he says, “because of my age.” He returned to civilian life, but after three months, felt that staying home would make him “lose himself.” Vadym accidentally came across a PDMSh ad, made inquiries, and “realized that this was my option.”

Watch a video about one of the episodes of PDMSh cooperation the Dyke Pole (Wild Field) Battalion during the Kharkiv operation last year.