U.S., Ukrainian veterans discuss war in Ukraine, honor U.S. veterans
Karen Mansfield|Greene County Messenger
Vadym Korobenko was a television sports reporter in Ukraine until he joined the Ukrainian National Guard in 2014 after Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine.
Korobenko fought in and around the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
A decade later, Korobenko, 39, and a retired lieutenant, is devastated that the city lies in ruin and is now under Russian occupation.
“I am so broken. I was born in the capital city of Kyiv, but my first steps were taken in Mariupol when I was 1 year old, and Mariupol is my soul. And today the city is destroyed. It is a dead city,” said Korobenko, who bears a tattoo representing the city on his thigh. “I hope so in the future we will build a new city in its place. It’s not just a city, it’s a symbol of Ukraine. So it is my pain, it is my hope, it is my soul.”
Korobenko was one of four Ukrainian and U.S. veterans who met last week for a roundtable discussion about the war, now entering its third year after Moscow launched an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The panel also talked about the medical and mental health needs of veterans, as the war continues to take a physical and psychological toll on the Ukrainian population.
And the Ukrainian veterans also wanted to thank Americans for their support and for the new $61 billion aid package for Ukraine that was passed by Congress in May, after months of intense debate, and to honor fallen American soldiers in the post-Memorial Day event.
“This is the third year of active war in Ukraine, and I understand a lot of people in the U.S. and other countries around the world are getting tired of this because it is so hard for the mental part. But I want to say in Ukraine, we can’t tire of the war. We have a simple choice: keep fighting and stay alive or stop fighting and we’ll die, all Ukrainians. I want to thank a lot of the people of the U.S. and the government for standing with Ukraine because we cannot win if we stay alone. We need our partnership.”
The roundtable, held at Ignite – a Washington & Jefferson College business incubator – was hosted by Razom (“together” in Ukrainian), a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to helping maintain a secure and democratic Ukraine. The event was hosted in U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler’s Southwestern Pennsylvania district in appreciation of his affirmative vote on the aid package.
Serving as moderator was David Bramlette, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran who completed several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and then spent several years in Europe as a Green Beret. He was working on a masters degree at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies when Russia invaded. He left the program and in March 2022, he arrived in Ukraine to fight against the Russians, leading a multinational team of volunteers and former soldiers.
Also participating was U.S. veteran Victor Neuphry, a radiation oncologist and retired colonel who served in the Air National Guard as a flight surgeon. Neuphry, a Ukrainian-American, served in Iraq and was deployed on several humanitarian operations, including Bosnia and Ukraine.
Joining Korobenko via Zoom from Lviv (where it was 1:30 a.m.) was Andriy Zholob, a 43-year-old orthopedist who is the ex-commander of a medical unit. Zholob fought on the front lines of some of the war’s most brutal battles, including the Kherson counteroffensive and the battles for Bakhmut – the bloodiest battle on European soil since World War II, and battles for Soledar and Maryinka.
The war, Zholob said, has impacted him in ways that he can’t clearly articulate.
When his tour of duty ended in March, Zholob said he was not ready to return to medicine.
Instead, the husband and father of two daughters, 11 and 8, accepted a position as head of the Veterans Office in Lviv and plays in a punk rock band called Beton.
“I see health now from (the veterans’) side,” said Zholob, who also advocates for veterans with disabilities. “I’m talking now and it’s with different groups of veterans and talking with families of the fallen, as someone who understands what veterans and their families need and want … veterans understand veterans, veterans trust veterans.”
Zholob said Ukrainians’ resolve remains steadfast in their defense of their country, and that patriotism has grown throughout Ukraine as they fight “our crazy neighbor next door.”
For Bramlette, the conflict is “as black-and-white as it gets.”
“When the full-scale war kicked off, I thought, this is what I’ve been training for for my whole life and I could sit in class and talk about Ukraine and what Russia’s doing to it or I could go do something, I could go to Ukraine and help. Ukraine is a democracy in Europe and what Russia is doing to Ukraine shouldn’t be happening,” said Bramlette, who now works for RT Weatherman Foundation, where he transports injured Ukrainian soldiers and volunteer fighters to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for medical treatment, including obtaining prosthetics.
“To a T, every single one of those guys, once they get a new leg or heal up, they want to go back and fight. If they have a prosthetic, they say, ‘I can fly a drone,’ or ‘I can be a sniper,'” said Bramlette.
Neuphry, whose wife is from Lviv and who still has family in Ukraine, visited Ukraine on a humanitarian mission last summer.
“From a human perspective, this is a cross between a tragedy and a disaster. Ukraine posed no threat to Russia whatsoever, and Putin, for whatever reasons, wants to take Ukraine over. He’s stated many times that there is no such thing as Ukraine and Ukraine is really a part of Russia and we’re going to make it a part of Russia. All of it.”
The roundtable also discussed helping veterans transition to civilian life after they return home.
Since 2021, Korobenko has lived in Philadelphia, where he spends time working with Ukrainian veterans to reintegrate into society and speaks with groups about the situation in Ukraine.
An ultramarathoner, he participates in competitions with fellow veterans.
His father, sister, brother-in-law and their three children live near Kyiv, and they have no intention of leaving, Korobenko said.
“The war has impacted every single citizen of Ukraine. My father is always stressed about our relatives who are fighting. And for my sister, it’s scary to be a mother of three in an active war,” he said. “It is dangerous not only for physical health but mental health, too, because they grow up in the war. A lot of time they have no electricity, or they can’t visit school because it is dangerous. They grow up in this situation and when they grow old, they will remember that. They lost their childhood.”
Korobenko again asked for unity in the war.
“If we will be together in this fight, we will win because war in Ukraine will not just be a question for Ukraine. It is just the first round in this big terrible fight. And we can stop it in Ukraine, we have a chance to stop it and end it here,” he said.
Ukrainian clergy from churches in Carnegie conducted a memorial service coordinated by Razom in honor of Memorial Day and fallen American service members at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies, and Korobenko and Bramlette laid a wreath on the grave of a Ukrainian American veteran.