--- description: Find out how Yana Zinkevych is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. title: 2023 TIME100 Next: Yana Zinkevych image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta23968867f957c6f/698a4008db298787a62694ce/time100-next-yana-zinkevych-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 13, 2023 # Yana Zinkevych by [Armani Syed](/author/armani-syed/) ## Armani Syed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Syed was a reporter for TIME, based in the London bureau.  Yana Zinkevych Yana ZinkevychUkrinform/Alamy For nearly a decade, Yana Zinkevych has been instrumental in saving Ukrainian lives on the front lines. The 28-year-old military veteran is the commander of a Ukrainian civilian medical battalion known as the Hospitallers—not to mention one of the country’s youngest members of parliament. In 2014, when conflict with Russia broke out in eastern Ukraine, Zinkevych was preparing to study medicine. She paused her studies to aid those injured in the fighting, soon [founding the Hospitallers](https://www.aljazeera.com/program/al-jazeera-close-up/2022/8/7/ukraines-unstoppable-medics-close-up "undefined") to equip others to do the same. Zinkevych herself led over 200 wounded soldiers to safety before being injured in 2015, and under her leadership the group has assisted and evacuated thousands of service people and civilians. But over the course of this year, the Hospitallers have raised more money for their dedicated training center with specialized equipment, where Zinkevych’s team can ready the next generation of volunteer paramedics. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6311748/yana-zinkevych/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6311748/yana-zinkevych/"},"headline":"Yana Zinkevych","datePublished":"2023-09-13T11:00:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:19:51.443Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6311748/yana-zinkevych/","keywords":["TIME 100 Next","sponsorshipblock","time100nextartists23"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta23968867f957c6f/698a4008db298787a62694ce/time100-next-yana-zinkevych-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Armani Syed","jobTitle":"Syed was a reporter for TIME, based in the London bureau.","url":"https://time.com/author/armani-syed/"}],"creator":"Armani Syed","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta23968867f957c6f/698a4008db298787a62694ce/time100-next-yana-zinkevych-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6311748/yana-zinkevych/","name":"Yana Zinkevych"}}]}] ```