Bombay Durpun - Mourners bid farewell to medic killed in east Ukraine

Friends and relatives of 32-year-old Maria-Khrystyna Dvoinik wept before her open coffin flanked by candles in Saint Michael's cathedral as the priest gave the funeral mass.

Dvoinik was killed while trying to evacuate wounded soldiers in the eastern Donetsk region, friends and colleagues said.

She died just days before she had been due to return to Kyiv.

"It is difficult to find words at moments like this, but I want our hearts to always have the best and brightest memories of those we say goodbye to, even in times of grief," said the priest, his voice echoing through the cathedral's vast interior.

Many of those in the cathedral were other combat medics in camouflage uniforms and carrying their frontline first-aid kits.

"She was a wonderful girl," volunteer medic Tetiana told AFP after the funeral service.

"She was a girl full of energy and full of desire to do something for Ukraine.

"It is very painful that these are the young people who are supposed to build our country, and we are losing them now," the 55-year-old added, tears in her eyes.

- 'She knew no fear' -

Tributes to Dvoinik also flooded social media.

"She knew no fear and never hesitated to risk her life to save her fellow soldiers and help them return home alive," wrote Yana Zinkevich, a lawmaker who help found the Hospitallers group of volunteer medics that Dvoinik worked alongside.

"The Russians killed her. Heroes die saving others heroes," she added.

Dvoinik, who went by Alpaca, was killed near Pokrovsk, one of the more precarious sectors of the front, where Russian forces have made rapid gains over recent months.

The work of combat medics -- particularly evacuations -- has become increasingly perilous since cheap Russian drones began blanketing the skies over the front.

Tetiana said Russian forces were "hunting" for Ukrainian medics on the front.

The war in Ukraine, launched by Russia nearly three years ago, has devastated medical facilities in frontline areas and claimed the lives of dozens of medical workers.

P.Mueller--BD