Faithful to profession and country until his last breath: the story of Dr. Serhiy Smoliak

Serhii Smoliak is a resident of Kakhovka who has spent more than 35 years of his life serving people as a paramedic at the emergency medical station in Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast. During this time, the doctor has saved many lives and repeatedly risked his own for the sake of others. But in January of this year, the man was killed during another enemy attack while performing his duty. His son Oleksiy told the Intent team about Serhiy, what he went through in the occupied city and more.

Being where he was needed

Sergiy Smolyak met the beginning of the full-scale invasion at the emergency medical station of the Kakhovka Central City Hospital named after the Pankeyev family, where he worked as a senior paramedic. As soon as he learned that the enemy had crossed the border and was moving rapidly through the Kherson region, the man immediately called his son and told him to try to leave. As for himself, he said he had a lot of work to do and could not leave those waiting for help. "At the time, in addition to the main large ambulance station, my father was in charge of substations in the village of Zelenyi Pid and the village of Chernyanka. So the only thing he was thinking about was how to organize the work of ambulances so that they could respond to calls and help people no matter what. I remember his phrase very well: "At a time like this, we have to be where we are needed," says his son Oleksii Smoliak.

Serhii Smoliak at his workplace. Photo courtesy of the interviewee

The first days of the new reality were very stressful for the paramedic. Due to the high level of stress in such conditions, the human body malfunctioned: there were many victims, people called the ambulance en masse. Serhiy and his team had to work overtime to respond to all the requests. Oleksiy recalls: "Despite the fact that my father, as a leader, was not supposed to go to calls himself, he did it. He went even when others did not dare: at night under occupation fire. He was the only one who did not hesitate to save a woman who gave birth in the first days of those events, but due to complications needed emergency care, which was available only in Kherson. This meant driving through the seized hydroelectric power plant. But he said that he didn't care about his own risk if he could save a person. And he did it."

Serhiy even had to deliver a baby himself in the middle of the steppe, on the side of the road, because his husband did not have time to bring a woman from a remote village to the hospital. Once, overstepping his own principles and risking his life, the medic went to the occupiers' military hospital to operate on a child who no one could help at the time. But this was only the beginning.

Serhii Smoliak. PHOTO provided by the interviewee

It was getting harder and harder

Over time, the number of calls decreased, but at the same time, the work of doctors became much more difficult. Each new case was more critical, fuel and medical supplies were dwindling, and communication was deteriorating or even disappearing. But this did not stop Serhiy.

"Even then, my father found ways to provide the ambulance with medicines and spare parts, and I helped him with that. It was he who solved the issue of fuel shortages. Dad was a doctor with a good reputation. So when he asked for help, the owners of gas stations and many farmers who knew him shared their supplies for the ambulance. Sometimes, in order to take the fuel-filled canisters, he planned entire special operations so that the occupiers would not guess anything and take them away," Oleksiy says.

Pressure from the Russians added to the supply problems. They not only forced us to work for them, but also sent medical workers at gunpoint to provide emergency assistance to their military at the places of arrival.

"It was when our defenders started hitting the occupiers and important logistics facilities with HIMARS. Dad had to go to a call where he was forced to put a weapon to his back and ordered to help one of the military. Then they demanded magic from my dad to save his leg, which had already been crushed during the arrival. The only thing that could be done was amputation," says Oleksiy.

According to the doctor's family, various things happened during the occupation, but Serhiy always found wise solutions and was able to turn everything around so that the occupiers would not harm anyone and he would not betray his principles as a Ukrainian. His son Oleksii recalls that the doctor repeatedly managed to deceive the occupiers: "When the Russians began to force us to cooperate, they brought a bag of rubles to the ambulance station and told us to give it to everyone. Anyone who refused was ordered to be blacklisted for 'explanatory work'. And then my father had an idea how to turn their own money against them. He talked to the team, advising his colleagues to take the money so as not to give away their pro-Ukrainian position. Then he took it to the local money changers, exchanged it for hryvnias, credited it to a card and sent it to the needs of our Armed Forces."

Staying is not an option

A few weeks before the liberation of Kherson, Serhiy's "newly minted" management came to the emergency medical station and invited him to talk. They said they knew about the medic's true position, but given his impeccable reputation as an experienced paramedic and reliable leader who, even under such conditions, managed to keep the full Ukrainian ambulance fleet and equipment in place and organize uninterrupted work, they decided to give him a chance to choose.

"Then my father was faced with a choice: "Either you take your passport and work for us, or you have time to leave. If you try to cheat, you will pay with your life!" In response, my father said that he had lived his entire adult life in Ukraine, built his career in Ukraine, that he loved his country and would not tolerate another. One thing was clear: they could not stay, they had to leave. So they became the last to pass through the Vasylivka checkpoint," Oleksiy notes.

At the beginning of November 2022, the doctor, along with his wife and her parents, found themselves in the government-controlled territory, in Kyiv. There, he immediately said that he could not sit idly by at such a time and went in search of work. Oleksiy recalls: "My father quickly found a job at a state hospital and started working there. As in Kherson, he was also well received by the staff and people here. Some of the patients he helped even called the Kyiv City State Administration's hotline once to recognize his work. And he kept repeating that he was just doing what a doctor should do."

In addition to his new job, the man continued to support his colleagues who remained in the occupation in every possible way, donated to the needs of the Armed Forces, held his own fundraiser to provide for a military medic he knew who was evacuating the Krynok area on the Left Bank of Kherson region, and continued to remotely conduct advanced training courses for students of Beryslav Medical College. He also saved money from each paycheck to buy gifts for his colleagues from the Left Bank of Kherson region. He believed that he would be the first to return medicine to the liberated Kakhovka.

Serhii Smoliak with his son Oleksii and his wife. PHOTO provided by the interviewee

The last time

Although Serhiy was no longer under occupation, his trips to dangerous calls did not stop. Only the circumstances and the atmosphere around him changed. Now the medic went to provide emergency assistance to the victims right at the places of arrival during Russian massive attacks. Each time he risked his own safety to save other lives.

"There were many such cases. Since the ambulance was the first to arrive at the scene, there were many times when the chessmen fell down near them. And there was also a case when he was taking a child to an emergency hospitalization, a ballistic missile fell in front of the ambulance a few hundred meters away. The car was shaken, but my father told me to go, because time was running out to save him," says Oleksiy.

But the call during which the doctor had to not only provide assistance, but also watch rescuers take out the burnt bodies of workers from the destroyed workshops of one of the enterprises, which were hard to recognize.

"When he came home, he told me about everything and said a terrible phrase: "If this happens to me, I want to be buried by my own people, not by strangers as an unknown person." So later, my father bought a military badge and wore it without taking it off, as if he felt the inevitable," Oleksii says.

On January 9, 2026, Serhii went on his, as it turned out, last call to the scene of a shelling in the Darnytskyi district of the capital. At that time there were almost no casualties, so soon the medical teams received an order from the doctor on duty to end their duty. Serhiy, as the head of the mobile headquarters, went to warn the staff of the SES aid station about this. And it was at this time that another Shahed arrived.

"That one fell very close. My father tried to save himself by covering his head with his hands and falling to the ground. But when his colleague came up, unfortunately, he was already without signs of life, because he had suffered a traumatic amputation of his leg from the hip, and one of the fragments pierced him in the heart area from the back," the son of the deceased states with regret.

To pay tribute

Serhiy's death and the publicizing of the situation by the paramedic's family was a decisive factor in the protection of medics in such emergencies. After the tragedy, emergency teams go to shelling sites only with a higher level of security and in coordination with the military and the State Emergency Service, and not automatically immediately after the first explosion. Moreover, if there is a possibility of a second strike, dispatchers can now decide not to send medics until the area is checked.

"My dad's example showed that no matter what profession we have, we are all human beings first and foremost, vulnerable and defenseless in such conditions. So we need to treat every specialist with understanding, take care of everyone's safety and remember everyone who is risking their lives to save Ukrainians in such difficult realities. Each of them is a person doing a titanic job," emphasizes Oleksiy.

To honor Serhiy's memory, his family initiated a petition to award him the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the Golden Star (posthumously). The required number of signatures has already been collected. Oleksiy also notes: "In addition to the signed petition, I want to erect a monument near the place where my father died. But not only to him, but to all Ukrainian ambulance workers. I want the sculptural image of my father to become the embodiment of the memory of the medics who died performing their professional duty during the Russian-Ukrainian war. We must pay tribute to them."

Serhiy Smoliak with his family. PHOTO provided by the interviewee

The work on this material was made possible by the Fight for Facts project, which is implemented with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Олег Пархітько, Ганна Компаніченко