“There is no difference whether you are Georgian, Ukrainian, Belarusian or Colombian”. How the Lanka rehabilitation center works near Kyiv

“I bought a one-way ticket”

The Lanka rehabilitation center in the Kyiv region was opened by Tetiana Hatsura-Yavorska. She came to Ukraine from Belarus in the spring of 2022. Tetiana had to leave her country in secret. Since 2006, she has been involved in human rights protection there, and then created the human rights organization Zvyano. But after the 2020 protests, Lukashenka's regime saw such activities as a direct threat. A criminal case was opened against Tetiana and then she was arrested.

“I spent 10 days in the pre-trial detention center, which is the period for which you must either be charged or released. I was released without being charged. While I was in the detention center, they conducted a second search. They beat my husband and demanded passwords to my equipment. He was told that he had 48 hours to leave and protect himself, and if he didn't, he would be arrested and then deported,” Tetiana recalls.

The security forces threatened to send Tetiana's child to a social shelter, so her husband decided to leave. Although Tetiana was not charged, she was released as a suspect with a ban on leaving the territory of Belarus.

“I wrote a petition asking to be allowed to leave the country for 10 days to see my family. There is a procedure if a person has this status, this permission can be issued, but I was denied. I applied twice. The last time was in January 2022. I was denied again,” says the human rights activist.

Tetiana was in Minsk when the full-scale war broke out. She recalls the rally that took place then, despite the fact that most of the activists had already left Belarus or were in prison.

“It seemed that many people were already so intimidated, because going out into the streets to protest is most likely a criminal offense. But a lot of people came out. When we were detained, we were sitting in a garage, and we were from different social strata. There were businessmen, young people, and pensioners,” Tetiana recalls.

It was after the start of the full-scale invasion that Tetiana Hatsura-Yavorska decided to leave Belarus. She had to leave illegally. In Ukraine, she immediately started volunteering, raising money to purchase vacuum wound therapy devices for hospitals. According to the human rights activist, the Belarusian diaspora in Italy made a great contribution to this.

“They arranged for the equipment to be shipped to Ukraine, bypassing the distributor. If we had done it through a representative, it would have been much more expensive. We raised more than 100 thousand euros in two years and transported not only the devices but also consumables. This is a very important method of treatment when a person is seriously injured. The devices pump out all the dirt and fluid from the wound, and there is no decay. This helps to avoid amputations,” says Tetiana Hatsura-Yavorska.

Volunteering immersed Tetiana in the reality of war. She went to hospitals, talked to doctors, saw the wounded, and soon decided to open a rehabilitation center called “Lanka”.

“We call Lanka a family-type rehabilitation center”

Currently, five soldiers — three Georgian citizens and two from Belarus — are undergoing treatment at Lanka. Gio came to Ukraine in the spring of 2022. He is originally from Georgia, but when the Great War broke out, he was working in Germany. He explains his decision simply: during the war in 1992-1993, only Ukrainians helped Georgia.

In Ukraine, Gio served in the First Georgian Legion, then in the Separate Special Forces Battalion of the Ministry of Defense of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. This is a voluntary unit within the International Legion of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. In April 2024, Gio was wounded.

“We were in Chasiv Yar. Four of us were on a mission and one was killed. A 128-millimeter mortar fired off shells, and one fragment hit me in the eye. I had surgery, but now I can't see,” said Gio.

His friend Zurab, who is also rehabilitating at Lanka, fought with Gio. Gio calls him his bodyguard. When Gio was wounded, Zurab came to get his friend and pulled him out.

Over 60 people have been rehabilitated here since the Lanka was founded. Many of them are foreign volunteers.

“Any normal person who sees what the Russians are doing, at least morally, is obliged to come here. There are people who say: ‘This is not our war’. Yes, it is. If Europeans allow the Russians to win here, and if we do, no one will be free. This is a fight for our common freedom,” says Andrii (name changed), a volunteer from Belarus.

In addition to Georgians and Belarusians, the center has treated Russians, Colombians, Canadians, and Swedes — the geography is very wide. Helping not only Ukrainians, but also foreigners is also the mission of Lanka.

“Ukrainians who serve have families, relatives, social ties, and their own homes. Foreigners who come to fight in Ukraine do not have this. Very often, they don't even speak the language well. It is not easy for them. If a person gets to a hospital with an injury, he or she does not understand what is happening around him or her. Doctors don't have time to use an interpreter to explain something. We realized that we could be useful for this category of soldiers,” says Tetiana.

At Lanka, soldiers recover from injuries to their arms, legs, and backs; they can also come here with gastroenterological or neurological problems. For example, Zurab treats protrusions and rehabilitates after a concussion at Lanka.

“A person writes to us about their problem. We contact them, find out what they really need to understand whether we can help or not. Because there may be problems that require hospitalization. Or it may be that the person has a severe addiction, and we won't be able to cope with it. The doctor prescribes initial examinations and diagnostics. We make appointments for all these procedures, examinations, and consultations,” says Tetiana.

Since its inception, Lanka has developed social ties and now cooperates with the Kyiv City Children's Diagnostic Center in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv and the Ruslan Serhiienko Clinic. Here, the team already has its own circle of doctors who help military personnel free of charge. These include urologists, gastroenterologists, neurologists, cardiologists, orthopedists, surgeons, and rehabilitation specialists.

If a patient needs another specialist, Tetiana and her team look for them in paid clinics, but it is still free for the soldiers, as is their stay at Lanka. Soldiers are taken to physical therapy, water procedures, and provided with a diet if necessary.

“We have a minimum of 10 days, because often the military is given leave for this period. But in fact, we had two patients who lived for 4-5 months. During this time, when a person comes here, they are taken care of, realize what is wrong with their health, and receive help to improve their health,” says Tetiana.

At the same time, the military can take pottery and woodcarving classes. Various activities are created for them, but the most important thing is the feeling of home warmth that surrounds the soldiers, says Gio, a Georgian.

“I feel myself at home. It is warm for souls here. Souls are helped. There is no difference here whether you are Georgian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Colombian,” Gio shares his impressions.

After rehabilitation, many volunteers keep in touch and remain friends.

“You know, there are family-type orphanages. Here we have a family-type rehabilitation center. In most cases, people come here because they don't have a family, they don't have these warm relationships, they don't have this kind of support. And in fact, I think this is the most important reason why they come,” says Tetiana.

Lanka is financially supported by the Belarusian diaspora, the Volunteer Hundred organization, the Renaissance Foundation. Donors also play a significant role. In addition, volunteers from a number of countries are regular visitors to the center for support.

Neither to return nor to stay

After his rehabilitation at Lanka, Gio plans to return either to the front line or to the security units. Zurab is also going back to the front. They have no other options, because in Georgia, volunteers face criminal prosecution. Gio says that this has already happened to one of his friends, who was convicted of fighting on the side of Ukraine. The volunteer was later pardoned by President Salome Zurabishvili.

“There are problems with the state there, and there are problems here. For the Georgian state, we are all terrorists,” says Gio.

But this is not only the situation of Georgian citizens, but also of Russian and Belarusian citizens. Volunteers, even after being seriously injured in Ukraine, have only three options: either fight again, go to a third country, or stay here illegally.

“For Russians, Belarusians and Georgians, this is a big problem. They cannot return to their countries. And it turns out to be a paradox that people came to help Ukraine, but Ukraine does not really want to help them,” reflects Tetiana Hatsura-Yavorska.

In late August, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law on the legal status of foreign volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine. It was allegedly initiated primarily for Russians and Belarusians. At the time, it was emphasized that the law provides for the possibility of volunteers obtaining immigration permits or citizenship even on the basis of expired passports. But, according to Tetiana Hatsura-Yavorska, this initiative did not make life easier for foreigners.

“To be eligible for a residence permit in Ukraine, you need to have been married for two years or served in the Armed Forces for three years without breaking your contract. Compare: two years in marriage and three years in the war. You can also study at a university for five years, and you also get a permanent residence permit in Ukraine. For me, these are incomparable things. In addition, three years of war have not yet passed. When this time comes, I think there will be very few people who have three years of contract without a break,” says Tetiana.

In her opinion, combatants have the right to at least a temporary residence permit, which would allow them to stay and work in Ukraine legally.

“When a person is released, he is a foreign veteran, no one is obliged to treat them. We have a guy, a Russian, Artem, he joined the army at the age of 18, I think, on February 26, 2022. He was seriously wounded. A drone came, both arms and legs were injured. Now he is solving his own issues after he was released for health reasons. It should not be like this. This child, 20 years old, is actually left with a disability, and there are no social guarantees. Are they mercenaries or defenders? Because today they are just mercenaries,” says Tetiana.

The human rights activist, like most of the volunteers, believes that one day she will return to her country, to a different Belarus, and will be able to change something there, but she believes this will only be possible after the war is won.

“The fact that Ukraine is now confronting such a monster is a very difficult historical moment in which Ukrainians are showing themselves as a truly strong nation. This is very important. It is something to be admired. If we look at it globally, as Valeria Novodvorska said, Ukraine must be protected, because without Ukraine there will be no Belarus, there will be nothing,” says Tetiana Hatsura-Yavorska.