“Work is the best rehabilitation,” – veterinarian and combat medic Andriy Slabko

Veterinarian Andrii Slabko has been treating animals for a quarter of a century. Since 2015, he has also been saving people. He is a combat medic with the Hospitallers volunteer battalion. Today, on Ukraine’s Independence Day, we are proud to tell his story.

“The war started, it was still a ‘small war’. I wanted my wife and my children to live in an environment where the individual came first. We lived in a region where Russians were close. Crimea, Donbas, and Luhansk were vile. Gradual epiphany came,” the veterinarian recalls.

During the 8 years of the war, saving the wounded, Andriy went through the hottest areas of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

“Avdiyivka, Maryinka, Krasnohorivka, Vodiane, Mariupol, Luhansk region, Kreminna – during the ‘small war’. Now he is in Zaporizhzhia, Bakhmut, Soledar, Zelenodolsk, and participated in the liberation of Kherson region,” the defender says.

“He is a combat medic. A medic who provides assistance on the battlefield, takes him to the staging area,” explains his wife Oksana Bargamon.

Andriy Slabko is reluctant to talk about his work. But his awards testify to it: from 2016 to 2023, he was thanked for his services to the Ukrainian people by the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Razumkov, Defense Minister Poltorak, and Yarosh, the commander of the volunteer battalion. The awards were presented by Poroshenko and Zelenskyy.

“7 awards. The last one from President Zelensky was the “Golden Heart.” Volunteers were awarded. There were 39 of these awards in total, and Andriy has one heart,” says Oksana Bargamon.

On June 15, 2023, Andriy was seriously injured.

“It happened in Zaporizhzhia region, artillery was working… It was a difficult rotation and it so happened that I was a little unlucky. There was an artillery attack, we were expected. Now, as far as I know, they have found the person who led us to the position,” the combat medic says.

That day, he was miraculously saved by his colleagues. Numerous surgeries took place, followed by rehabilitation, first steps and pain covered by smiles and jokes.

“I can’t lean on my leg yet. It is still not completely healed, this parasite.”

In November, Andriy returned to work on crutches

“He performs surgeries, very complicated ones. He has a lot of patients. They come from neighboring towns. You could say he is a fan of his work,” his wife said.

“If there is a big dog, I operate on a bar stool. Work is the best rehabilitation. First of all, you wake up in the morning and feel lazy and want to lie down, but people are already waiting for you. You’ve already made an appointment, you get up and go. You just work and get distracted, and the rehabilitation goes faster,” says Andriy.

After Ukraine’s victory, Andriy Slabko dreams of opening his own veterinary clinic! UVMF sincerely believes that this dream will come true! We are extremely proud of Andriy Slabko and the indomitable Ukrainian veterinarians!