Kyiv bids farewell to paramedic killed in Russian follow-up strike
Kyiv paid final respects to 56-year-old paramedic Serhii Smoliak, who was killed on January 9, while providing aid to victims of a Russian attack on the capital, when a second strike landed about 50 meters away, hromadske’s correspondent reports.
Relatives, friends, colleagues and ordinary residents gathered at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery to honor Smoliak.
The paramedic died as his emergency medical team prepared to leave the initial strike site. That same night, four other medics and five rescuers were wounded in Kyiv.
Before moving to Kyiv, Smoliak spent more than 25 years as senior paramedic with the ambulance service in Kakhovka. His wife is also a medical worker. After the occupation, the family remained in the city for several months, with Smoliak continuing to work as a paramedic. They left the occupied area in autumn 2022.
Smoliak is survived by his wife, son and two granddaughters.
“He has a son here and two granddaughters. One is very little, just over a year old, the other is in first grade,” his longtime colleague Svitlana Kachan, who worked with him in Kherson Oblast, told public broadcaster Suspilne. “He was such a wonderful grandfather — every shift he would tell us about his little granddaughters. Serhii would never leave a person in a difficult situation without help.”