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A Canadian combat medic in Ukraine: ‘I looked at my children and thought I had to do something’ (english.elpais.com)
submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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April Huggett traded her life as a homemaker in Canada for the trenches of Ukraine to defend democracy and freedom against Russia’s expansionist ambitions

Until 2022, April Huggett’s life revolved around caring for her three children, then aged two, seven, and 11. The Russian invasion of Ukraine shook her so much that she decided to trade that life as a homemaker for the trenches and daily bombings on the Donetsk front, one of the most active of the war, to defend democracy and the free world where she was born against the expansionist threat of Russia. “After the Bucha massacre, it was really hard for me to move on. It was so similar to World War II... I looked at my children and thought I had to do something,” she recalls at the foot of a trench in a Donbas forest, where she is training with her comrades from the Alcatraz Battalion. Huggett, 36, wasn’t content with being a volunteer; she enlisted and, since December 2024, has served as a combat medic for this battalion, part of the 93rd Kholodny Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade and made up exclusively of ex-convicts who took up a government offer of sentence reductions to fight on the front lines. Huggett disinfects the finger of a recruit who has just cut himself on a tool and says: “These people are my family. They are my friends.”

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

She’s a medic. I know many American veterans who had a similar gut reaction. Many of them volunteered for military service for a few months in Ukraine to fight against encroaching fascism.

Hell, I wanted to volunteer but I’m not trained as a soldier or a medic. If I was, I’d probably do a round there too. Many Medics aren’t much different in spirit than the veterans I know who served in Ukraine already. It’s not surprising that she felt this way and chose to do a tour.

If you are service minded, and can also see that the war in Ukraine is already a World War, then the choice is more obvious.

Sure, she has children, but she also has valuable medical skills. There are many doctors that volunteer in war zones who also have families. This has always been a call of duty for medics who have a heart like this.

Last time, Canadians declared war against Germany immediately after Hitler invaded Poland. Then, Canada actively discouraged sending troops and preferred sending arms and training. Now, we do not have a declaration of war, but we do have similar behavior of sending arms and training.

We also similarly have civilians volunteer to join the front before their countries officially do.

Do people forget that Canadians and Americans chose to fight the Nazis, as individuals, well before their country officially declared war?

Do we look back on those volunteers with negativity? No, we don’t.

So, why would I look negatively at a medic following in the footsteps of the Greatest Generation? I can’t. If I had her skills, I’d do the same.