Yevheniia V. Dudka

Yevheniia Vasylivna Dudka was born on January 17, 1991, in the city of Verkhovtseve, Verkhnodniprovskyi district, Dnipropetrovsk region. In 2013, she graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk State University of Internal Affairs, in 2017 from the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Public Administration of the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, and in 2020 from the National University of Civil Protection of Ukraine. She has been serving in the State Emergency Service of Ukraine since November 2013. At the beginning of the full-scale Russian armed aggression, she held the position of head of the media relations and public outreach department of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Dnipropetrovsk region. On April 10, 2022, the enemy launched a missile strike on critical infrastructure in the city of Dnipro. Press officer of the regional emergency service, Major of Civil Protection Yevheniia Dudka arrived at the scene of the incident first, together with colleagues from one of the fire and rescue units in the city. Yevheniia was performing her professional duties of gathering operational information and photographing the site of the enemy attack so that the media and the entire world could see the consequences of the criminal actions of the Russians. While the emergency responders were eliminating the consequences of the missile strike, the Russian invaders treacherously launched a second strike on the very building where the rescuers were located. As a result of the attack, six employees of the State Emergency Service were injured, including Yevheniia. The injuries of the press officer turned out to be the most severe—her abdominal cavity and thigh were damaged. Yevheniia was hospitalized in serious condition at a local hospital, and on May 31, 2022, she was airlifted to a medical facility in Germany. "With the injuries my daughter sustained, the chances of survival, as the doctor told me, were at most a week. But Zhenia wanted to live so much that she held on for another 9 months. And more and more often she said, 'Mom, I don’t want to die here, let’s take me to Ukraine.' I told her, 'Zhenia, don’t say that, it can’t be, we’ve already been through so much together, my daughter. We are in the same boat, we must fight for you to recover.' And she replied, 'No, Mom, we are in different boats; you are in the boat of life, and I am in the boat of death,'" shares the painful memories of Yevheniia's mother, Halyna Hryhorivna. "When she realized that, perhaps, it was all over, she asked to be taken home, to her homeland, and said this phrase: 'I want to die on my native land.' They brought her back to Ukraine, and unfortunately, Zhenia died," said Yevheniia's husband, Ihor Hetalo. At the end of February 2023, after a long treatment, Yevheniia returned to her native Ukraine. For 11 months, she fought for her life, undergoing dozens of surgeries, but unfortunately, on March 7, 2023, Yevheniia passed away. Her beloved husband was left without her, her caring parents were left without their daughter, and the entire large family of the State Emergency Service was left without a reliable, professional, and humane colleague. For personal courage and selfless actions displayed in defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and loyalty to the military oath, Yevheniia Vasylivna Dudka was awarded the Order of "For Courage" of the III degree.