Ukraine's oldest woman dies at 109 after surviving Holodomor and treating wartime resistance fighters
Olena Rybalko, believed to be Ukraine's oldest living woman, has died at the age of 109 in Lviv. A physician who survived the Soviet-engineered Holodomor famine and secretly treated Ukrainian insurgents, she continued practicing medicine until she was 89.
Lviv City Council announced Rybalko's death on October 12.
Born on June 2, 1917, in Ukraine's Vinnytsia region, Rybalko lived through some of the most devastating chapters of the country's modern history.
She survived the Holodomor, the Soviet-engineered famine of 1932–1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians.
Her father, Kyrylo Rybalko, had served in the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic and helped establish the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. He was executed by Soviet security authorities in 1937.
Her mother died during World War II.
After receiving medical training, Rybalko moved to Lviv in 1946 and later became chief physician at a district hospital in Pustomyty, near the city.
She also secretly provided medical assistance to members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), an armed nationalist movement that fought Soviet rule and was also involved in violence against civilians during World War II.
According to Lviv City Council, she performed operations in underground shelters, risking her life to treat wounded fighters.
Rybalko spent nearly her entire adult life working in medicine, retiring at the age of 89. Her patients included prominent Ukrainian cultural, religious and academic figures.
A farewell ceremony was scheduled for October 12 at the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Lviv. She will be buried at the city's Yaniv Cemetery.
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