Alexandra Ponomareva

Age: 22

Rank: Junior Sergeant, Medical Instructor

She is originally from a small town in the Bryansk Region. After graduating from high school in 2020, she signed a contract and enlisted in the Russian Armed Forces. By early 2022, she had risen through the ranks to serve in the 144th Guards Motorized Rifle Division (20th Combined Arms Army). Her specialty was as a medic: she evacuated the wounded from the battlefield and fired her weapon herself when necessary.

September 2022, Kharkiv Oblast. During the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ rapid counteroffensive near Balakliya–Izyum, her battalion came under heavy fire and was almost completely wiped out. Alexandra sustained severe shrapnel wounds to her right thigh and shoulder while carrying the last soldier out from under fire. Cut off from her unit, communication was lost.

Now she is alone in a half-ruined house on the outskirts of a small village: her Russian Armed Forces uniform is covered in blood and mud, her assault rifle lies nearby, a tourniquet is on her leg, and her face is pale from blood loss.