1970–2022
Inna Derusova
Combat medic, Hero of Ukraine
Soldiers called her Mom, and she could turn bewildered newcomers into combat medics in two weeks. Inna Derusova, a nurse from Kryvyi Rih, joined the army in 2015 and was killed in 2022 in Okhtyrka while saving the wounded. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).
Key accomplishments
- From 2015, a combat medic of the 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade; served in Donbas in 2015-2018
- Trained medics who came to the war from civilian life
- Defender of the Motherland Medal (2021)
- Saved more than 10 soldiers during the defense of Okhtyrka in February 2022
- Hero of Ukraine (posthumously, Decree No. 127/2022)
“They loved her and called her Mom”
That is how her comrade Petro Lysenko remembered Inna Derusova. She came to the battalion with a wave of mobilization, in a private’s post in the medical service, but ended up doing the work of three people: head of the medical service, head of the aid station and medical instructor. “For every soldier she became a kind of guardian angel,” he said.
A nurse who trained medics
Inna was born in 1970 in Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city in central Ukraine. She graduated from a medical college and worked as a nurse in a kindergarten. In 2015 she joined the Armed Forces, became a combat medic in the 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade and served in Donbas until 2018, in Avdiivka, Pisky, Zolote and elsewhere. Many medics who came to the war from civilian life passed through her hands. Her comrade said that within two weeks she could turn bewildered young women into real combat medics. In 2021 Inna was awarded the Defender of the Motherland Medal.
Two days in Okhtyrka
On 24 February 2022, the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Sergeant Derusova was on her way back to her unit from leave. She stopped in Okhtyrka in the Sumy region, which Russian forces were shelling. There were many wounded, and Inna stayed with them. In two days she saved more than ten soldiers.
Inna Derusova was killed by artillery fire in Okhtyrka on 26 February 2022 while giving first aid to the wounded. She was 51.
How she is remembered
On 12 March 2022 Inna Derusova was posthumously made a Hero of Ukraine, the country’s highest title. President Volodymyr Zelensky called her the first woman to receive it posthumously. She was buried in her native Kryvyi Rih, which named her an honorary citizen. Streets in Kryvyi Rih and Mukachevo bear her name, and a memorial plaque hangs on her old school.
