If you look at your social media, they are quite atypical. There is absolutely nothing there except helping others. You evacuated tens of thousands of soldiers, transported sick adults and children before a full-scale invasion, fed the poor. How did you get to this point? Did you ever have another life?
Of course, it was like everyone elseʼs. It changed with the Maidan. Then — ATO. Like all young and passionate people, I wanted to help and to do something. My first trip was to Debaltseve. The 25th separate battalion "Kyivska Rus" was stationed there at the time. I went to them, and it was such a makhnovshchina, they were such uncles...
Yes, I saw it in the photo. These are grown men in pea coats. They donʼt look at all like todayʼs military.
Yes, I spent the night in some childrenʼs camp with the commander and in the morning I saw the guys going to work. They understood where they were going, and they said goodbye to each other, hugged each other. That really impressed me.
Roman began traveling to the front in the first year of the war, October 2014.
“To work” means “to combat”?
Yes, they said "to work", but I saw the guys crying [about each other]. And then we went to the positions in the Debaltseve direction. There was already a slightly different contingent there — professional soldiers. I saw that they were having a hard time, and thatʼs where the whole story began — I started helping the army.
But you still had a normal life, you worked in printing.
I was and still am engaged in it because it is my place of strength. It gives me satisfaction — doing something new is cool.
And during the times of relative calm at the front, you fed the poor.
It all started with ATO too. I was driving another car to Chasiv Yar. I was returning on the Intercity from Kostyantynivka. I was very tired, and in the seat next to me some old woman was trying to give her husband money. I think, why is she so fussy?
It turned out that she was late for one train, there was not enough money for the second, and he lent her money — and she was collecting money in all her ways to give it to him. I looked at all this, bought myself a big fresh sandwich, coffee, and at that moment I understood that she could not afford it.
I returned to Kyiv, then went to Archbishop Epiphany and said: "Archbishop, we need to do something."
And a week later they bought a "Tavria" and started delivering food, feeding people.
Where did you get the money?
I earned part of it myself, the church gave part of it — it was 50/50.
Roman and his team feed people in the center of Kyiv, December 2019.
And you also transported seriously ill children from the hospital to their homes and wherever else they needed to go.
Yes, there was a pause with the units we helped. They once simply said: “Roman, we have everything we need”. And the people we distributed food to often ended up in hospitals and hospices, and my team and I followed them.
Then the children arrived. At first, I drove them in my “Peugeot 307”. I put an inflatable mattress on the back seat and drove like that. And once the car was cut off, it was spun around a lot, everything was okay with the child, but I wondered why I was doing it.
I could say I privatized it, like “I’m so cool and good”, and I can’t do it like this, I have to share. I turned to the church again, we bought the first ambulance and started transporting them qualitatively and professionally.
And you returned from one such evacuation from Belarus on February 23, 2022.
Yes, before the full-scale invasion, we traveled to the Republic of Belarus for five months. And on the 23rd, we returned from there in columns of Russian equipment. We were transporting a person after a liver transplant from Belarus to Ukraine. And we literally wedged ourselves into the Russian columns that were heading our way.
We have Kyiv license plates, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, with flashing lights. We just did it silently and understood that is the end, it is war. I called them, warned them, but they said to me: “No.”
Although a few people listened to me and left Kyiv.
It was also a shock for me that the border guards, whom we had passed through and whom we knew well, were shot by tanks from Belarus in the morning. They simply drove up and shot at this post. Some of them died, and some were able to retreat.
What was your first thought when it all started?
I slept for another hour and a half peacefully. I have this story with my character and body: if there is some trash, I can sleep, and then I will leave. So I slept and at 7:30 AM I was at the Romodanov Institute, picked up a girl who had a shunt installed, she had to be taken to the Rivne region.
We got into a terrible traffic jam on Victory Avenue. The military guys let us into their column — and we were driving behind a tank that was rolling out bumpers. Remember that video? We were driving right behind that tank.
Did you save the child?
Yes. We havenʼt had a single case where anything happened to the children.
Your evacuation looks very serious. Itʼs several buses where people are lying down, where there are special belts. You call the buses "arks".
Yes, this is a full-fledged evacuation mission: 7 large buses, and a van for 8 people, 3 cars. 4 people were with beds, 4 people — with seats, and a few more small ones that need to be repaired.
Kholodov in one of the missionʼs seven evacuation buses.
And you have already transported tens of thousands of wounded from the front. How did it all start?
We worked with the Luhansk State Emergency Service and they are really cool. And they introduced my guys to people at the stable. And then Dima called me and said: “Roma, your dream has come true.”
I asked: “Which one? Will they buy me a Rolls-Royce?”
And he said: “We will transport the military.”
And then I didn’t even ride, I flew as flash with a such joy…
Was it better than a Rolls-Royce?
Of course, I really wanted that. So we started driving from Bakhmut in two ambulances. 2 or 3 people worked, as needed.
And where did buses come from, how did the fleet appear?
This is not due to great intelligence, but to hardship. When we used to transport in units — one reclining, one sitting, we sometimes packed them so that there could be one reclining and eight or nine sitting in one car — they sat everywhere, leg to leg. And here our financial situation came into play.
We didn’t have money for fuel, which at that time cost a whopping UAH 80-90. I realized that we needed to do something more. I spied something in ours, but more in the USA, where the topic of mass evacuations is well promoted.
There, right in the municipalities, there are such large buses that are designed for disasters of various kinds. The church bought us the first cars. That’s how the first three “Fiats” appeared — four reclining, four sitting. We converted the “Fiats” ourselves.
Then there was a cool story: the parents of the child we rescued from besieged Chernihiv — Hordii — packed us into an “Iveco” with eight seats. Itʼs about how good things come back, and itʼs a cool story.
Tell us.
In the spring of 2022, we were contacted by "Okhmatdyt" asking if we could go to Chernihiv. It is a trash story. The first time I went, I didnʼt make it to Chernihiv, I just ran into columns of Russian equipment.
I turned around, flew to some nearby village, sat down, was silent and smoked. My legs were shaking, it was very scary.
And the second time we had already thought everything out as well as possible, we ended up in a surrounded city between two armies — everything was shooting, everything was burning and flying overhead.
The guys went to the orphanage, they were supposed to pick up only Hordii. As a result, they gave us another girl in addition — these are prematurely born children.
And where were the parents?
They were driving behind. I took two anesthesiologists. There was not enough oxygen even for Hordii, and we had two of them, so we were already returning very quickly.
I picked up the dead in the morgue, but I couldn’t get the ones I asked for — the cars were simply overloading. It was difficult to find someone specific. I took those I could.
Did you deliver them successfully?
Yes.
And how did buses appear?
I saved up for one, and Pavel Haidaiʼs company "Avtolohistyka" bought us two, and he still helps us to this day.
You know, I read your stories on social media and often cry, but in life you are so lively, cheerful. And you were once in a bar where we were raising money for your mission. People were laughing and drinking around. I looked at you and thought, after everything you see every day, how can you not hate these people around you who are living life.
It is important to determine why you are doing it. And I understood for myself why I do evacuations. I do them not because I am such a super-patriot. Not because I am bothered by the fact that I am not in the army.
A person is such an animal that he always comes up with excuses for himself — for example, I can say that I am dealing with seriously ill children. Not because of — God forbid — I feel sorry for them, these wounded people. I do it out of a sense of gratitude. I am grateful to these people for sacrificing their time, health, and lives.
And do you want a joke? Our evacuees have music playing all the time. That is, we ride with music. We are also just people — we drink coffee, eat sandwiches and communicate.
That is, the only difference between a bar and our evacuees is that people are hurting here and they donʼt know what to do. And itʼs societyʼs job to help them. They shouldnʼt have to adapt to society, society should adapt to them.
Itʼs hard for guys to understand the social mood when society becomes a little indifferent to the war. Not even a little. Everyone has scored for this war. Those who had a relationship with it, they have. And those who didnʼt have, have become even more distant.
I recently spoke with a familiar commander — a volunteer, a hero. And he kept repeating that he saw how people in the rear were killing for the war. I felt insulted and disappointed. And you were disappointed in the people?
It doesnʼt matter if you were disappointed or not. My team and I promised each other that we would see this story through to the end. But there are many stories that demotivate.
For example, this winter we were in one of the villages in the Pokrovsk direction, quite close to the front line. And when we came to the store, bought coffee for 100 hryvnias, shawarma for UAH 250, everything was great.
People were happy that someone was paying such completely unreasonably large amounts of money. And when the guided aerial bombs flew through the village, and we came to the same store early, they looked at us like wolves.
Because it seems like it came because of you?
Yes, but not because of us — because of the Russians who are attacking our country. We are definitely not here for anything. We are saving the lives of people who are defending your lives. Is that disappointing?
For a moment, yes. We went further, just laughed about it. We are still kicked out of parking lots, not allowed into some service stations, because we are military, although we are not military, but, well, anyway, by our nature we are a military organization.
If people disappoint you, but you keep going, then something compensates. What inspires you, besides the people you save?
In addition to the people I save, there are others who save me. These are good friends who I call from time to time, who can come to me when I feel bad. I feel bad too. Sometimes itʼs really bad and itʼs serious.
But I have friends who talk to me even when I donʼt want to talk to anyone. They still find the words, for which I am very grateful. Itʼs only people who get me out.
Kholodov with medics in an evacuation bus, July 2025.
What about psychologists, psychiatrists, rehabilitation centers?
We also went through it, and now I will work with a psychologist, with a new one. You have to do all this. Because if you are constantly giving, it is difficult to fulfill yourself.
A psychologist told me that when things are hard, you need to make a list of things that definitely make you happy — food, smells, places, movies — and follow it every day. Do something, taste something, smell something. It works, it brings back the joy of life.
I do the same. My friends gave me a motorcycle. I very rarely ride it, because my health doesn’t always allow it — I need to be focused. But sometimes I go out, get a coffee, and sit by the Dnipro River. The Dnipro River is just the best for me. There’s one place where I’ve been drinking coffee for probably about 15 years.
And during the war, there was a time when I missed it, but now I don’t — I take a motorcycle, get a coffee, go there, drink coffee, look around, and think how cool it is.
When you see a lot of death, when you experience a lot of grief, life takes on a new flavour. But there are two options: either you wonʼt feel it at all, or you will appreciate it to the fullest.
I appreciate it, although there were moments when I didnʼt feel it and didnʼt even want to live.
Itʼs a fine line. Why do you think some people feel at their peak, while others have crossed over to the other side?
Because there was no one around to support them. There were no people who understood, so they fell. Do you understand how I can get carried away?
For example, recently we went to "Okhmatdyt", there is a girl named Polina, 14 years old. She has tetraparesis of the lower limbs, she will be paralyzed for the rest of her life. Her father disappeared in the war, and she is such a cool person, just a fighter. And she smiles.
And what could be wrong with me if she smiles? When you give people support, you hold yourself together, because you understand that someone needs you.
And the people who couldnʼt handle it were alone. I know what itʼs like. When you have problems and youʼre left alone.
Itʼs very important to let people in at such moments, because there are people who say: "Iʼll get it on my own, Iʼll do it by myself," but you canʼt do anything on your own. Absolutely nothing.
Roman considers the “Lisova Polyana” Rehabilitation Center to be one of the best in the country. In the photo with the centerʼs director Ksenia Voznitsyna, May 2025.
In recent years, psychologists, and they are different, have been talking a lot about taking care of yourself first, your interests above all else, everyone else is a residual principle. But it seems to me that this doesnʼt work during such a big and terrible war, because if we donʼt unite now and think about the weaker ones, we are simply doomed.
Definitely yes. And look, successful units are those where people are connected to each other. Those where they go together after combat for coffee, to eat shawarma. And in unsuccessful ones, people donʼt even really communicate with each other.
Hovewer, there is another rule — not to make friends in war, and it has its own logic. But no, you have to make friends. Because even if someone dies, someone needs to remember them. Someone remembers them. We are People.
How Roman found his brother during one of the evacuations — watch the full video version of the conversation . And subscribe to the Babel channel on YouTube.