"Mom, I'm going to do good". The story of paramedic Ivan Shtokalo

"Ivan was born in Lviv in 1993, lived in Pomoryany (a village in Lviv Oblast - ed.). He graduated from secondary and art schools, played the flute. Then he entered the Lviv Medical University to study pediatrics, studied for three years. On December 12, 2014, he joined the Azov Regiment," Vira Shtokalo quickly and emotionally tells about her son, paramedic Ivan with the call sign "Skar".

"He thought for a long time where to go," the woman continues.

"At first he wanted to join the Right Sector. Then the head of the medical corps of Mariupol paid them a visit..."

Eventually Ivan joined the Azov Regiment. When he went to war, his mother did not know about it. He was so eager to serve that he did not have time to pick up a certificate from the university, so he took his credit with him to the front.

"Before that, we sat down at the table, and he started talking to me like this:

"Mom, I'm going to tell you something, but do not worry and listen carefully. Can you give me a guarantee that I will not die in six months or a year from some disease?"

"Nowadays no one can give such a guarantee," I said.

"You see, I am going to do good. I will give people life: parents will have children, and children will have parents."

"And what if something happens to you?"

"Mom, that's life." 

Ivan did go. For eight years in the combat zone in Donbas there were many dangerous moments. When the wing was continuously hit by shells — Ivan still saved his comrades.

He went through Shyrokyne and received an award for the defense of Mariupol, which he called his most important medal, more important than any orders.

Ivan Shtokalo, paramedic of the Azov Regiment
Photo: provided to hromadske

"Azov was his life"

During all the years of war, Mrs. Vira saw her son at home only occasionally.

"Azov was his life. Sometimes he would not have time to come home, and the guys would call him: 'When are you coming back? Maybe you will stay at home for a week instead of two?'"

In conversation with us, the woman repeatedly calls Ivan a kind, sociable person. She tells how he welcomed friends at home, how he allowed them to take whatever they wanted from the fridge.

"Ivan was a good cook. His friends were still laughing at him, saying that he chose the wrong profession. But his response was: "Who would have treated you then?"

Vira also recalls how Ivan told her not just to give alms to people on the street, but to ask them if they need anything else, if necessary — to come to their homes, bring medicines, food.

She tells how last year her son sent her a package of fruit when she got sick with coronavirus, how he got rare medicines and gave them to people for free, how he shared money with his colleagues who were not on a contract.

"He could not imagine how a doctor could take money for treatment. He said that he would sew pockets on his medical gown from the outside and make them inside so that people could not put money there." 

Ivan also constantly said that children should be taught to do good. If parents go to the hospital to visit the wounded, they must take their children with them so that they can see and learn to "do good".

"I asked him about the treatment of soldiers who were captured by them. Ivan said that one of them was worried about the injection he was given, whether he would die from it."

"And how did you view this prisoner of war?"

"First of all, I saw him as a human being. The man needed help, and I had to provide it. I did bandages to the prisoners as I would do to my Azov soldiers, as I would do to every Ukrainian soldier."

Ivan Shtokalo (right) with his comrade-in-arms
Photo: provided to hromadske

"Mom, we are fine... No, not so fine"

Vira asked her son to finish university: to study for three more years, get a diploma and return to service. Ivan always answered that he had a lot of patients, and during the war he learned so much, got so much practice at the front and in hospitals in Kharkiv and Dnipro, that it means more than theoretical training.

However, last year he also started admitting that it is still worth getting a diploma.

"Last summer, in July, he came home and said that this year would be his last in Azov, and he would return to study." 

However, the reality was different. Since October, Ivan and his comrades began to train intensively at the training ground, and contacted his mother less and less often.

"He said that there might be a big war, although in fact they had been preparing for it since 2014. They knew — Ivan warned that Russia could launch a full-scale offensive." 

Since February 24, Ivan has not spoken much with his mother. Sometimes he did not get in touch for weeks, only sending short messages through friends.

"He did not write to me, and I was afraid to write to him. I was afraid that they were listening in. I only knew that he was at the positions. And then he calls and says: "Mom, I finally got to the Internet. We are doing fine... No, not so fine".

He said that he and the marines finally united, and they all came to Azovstal."

Ivan Shtokalo, paramedic of the "Azov" regiment
Photo: provided to hromadske

"Give back the dead"

Vira did not ask Ivan about Azovstal — she felt that it was difficult for her son to talk. She only knew that the medics were in another building, separate from the military.

"Ivan told me that there were many civilians at the plant. He said he was sick, that his throat hurt. I told him to take some lozenges, lollipops, and he replied: "Mom, there is nothing here for a long time. This is a completely different story, one day I will tell you everything."

When in May there was no news from Ivan for too long,  Vira began to call the Lviv National Corps. There she was contacted by the Azov patronage service.

"They confirmed the death of my son. But as a mother, I felt it before... I was empty inside, as if everything was cut off... That's why I started calling everywhere myself." 

At first, Vira was told that Ivan died from a sniper's bullet while saving a wounded soldier. But the paramedic's colleagues, who were recently released from captivity, told the woman that Ivan came under fire in an ambulance when he was leaving Azovstal to pick up the wounded.

At this stage, this is all Vira knows. She also has a certificate from the military unit about the death of her son. Ivan's body has not been returned from Mariupol yet.

"I never buried my son. Only one boy, who is from Lviv, was brought from there. His mother went for identification, but there are still no DNA results. I say: return the dead — but no, they do not even return them, so that we could not at least say final goodbye to them."

This text is part of a special project “In a steel embrace” which collected 34 stories of different people brought together by Azovstal. All of these stories are about hope and struggle, and the desire for freedom and love for Ukraine.

/ By Olesia Bida