Kateryna Polishchuk - Know Your Own

In spring 2022 her singing in the basements of Azovstal went viral. Paramedic Kateryna “Ptashka” Polishchuk from the Ternopil region saved the wounded in besieged Mariupol and sang for her comrades in the plant’s bomb shelters. She survived four months of captivity and went back to the army.

Songs in a bomb shelter

In spring 2022 videos spread across social media of a young woman singing Ukrainian songs in the basements of the Azovstal steel plant in besieged Mariupol. The singer was a 21-year-old paramedic, Kateryna Polishchuk, call sign “Ptashka” (“Little Bird”). At the plant she not only saved the wounded but also kept up her comrades’ spirits with her songs.

From the Ternopil region to Mariupol

Kateryna was born in 2001 in the village of Sosnivka in the Ternopil region of western Ukraine. In 2020 she graduated from the vocal department of the Ternopil arts college. From 2021 she was a volunteer medic with the Hospitallers battalion in the Donetsk region. In the first days of the full-scale invasion she went to Mariupol and worked in a military hospital. When the hospital was bombed, she and other medics and patients took shelter at Azovstal.

Captivity and return

On 19 May 2022, following orders from command, Kateryna left the plant with the other defenders, and all of them were taken prisoner by Russia. After four months in captivity she came home in a prisoner exchange on 21 September 2022.

Back in the army

That same year Kateryna was awarded the Order for Courage, 3rd class, and Ternopil made her an honorary citizen. In November 2022 she sang the lullaby “Spy, malenkyi kozachok” (“Sleep, little Cossack”) in the final of the TV talent show “The Voice of the Country”. And in September 2025, after four and a half years as a volunteer, Ptashka signed a contract and became a service member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She says she is proud of it.