Nichole Robichaux was a real estate agent in Slidell. Now, she’s a medic in Ukraine.

Six months after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, her family welcomed a pair of refugees into their Louisiana home. She advocated for Ukraine in Washington, D.C. She studied the Ukrainian language.

But she felt a deep calling — one she has trouble explaining, still — to do more.

Last year, she traveled to Kharkiv to deliver medical supplies: bandages and splints, hand warmers and antibacterial ointment. She experienced the country’s cities and met its people. As sirens wailed, she got a tattoo.

“It felt like I was completely at home,” she said back in October, during an interview in a Slidell coffee shop. “Nothing felt foreign to me. …

“I actually felt more at home in Ukraine, really, than I do here.”

So she made a decision: She’d study to become a medic, then join the war effort. In February, she enlisted in the Ukrainian army.

The 46-year-old spoke by phone in late July about work, fear and the sirens that no longer keep her up at night.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

It’s been a while since we’ve spoken. Could you place me where you are in the country, in the city, in the room?

I’m in eastern Ukraine, on the border of the Donbas and Kharkiv regions. My unit operates mostly in the Donetsk area. So I stay out here and do evacuations when we have injuries or, unfortunately, deaths. And then I also do a lot of tactical medicine training for soldiers.

Did you expect training to be a piece of what you would do?

I didn’t, actually. Most of my days are in the classroom.

I finished my EMT program and took my tests. Then I had to do video testing to complete the program, as I was getting here. Then I went on to do some more training in tactical medicine once I came to Ukraine, because those are more useful skills for what we’re doing over here. It’s called Tactical Combat Casualty Care training, and it was created by the U.S. military and adapted to this war . We teach these skills to as many soldiers as possible, so that they can provide first aid and first care until a medic can arrive.

That way, they can keep each other alive.

Can you give me an example of a tactical medicine approach? Something you hadn’t learned while training to be an EMT?

It starts with stopping massive bleeding. Something like 85 to 88% of preventable battlefield deaths here are caused by massive hemorrhage. So stopping massive bleeding is the No. 1 priority.

Remind me: What was your medical training or experience before this?

I had worked for my dad, who was a doctor. Medicine has always been in my blood.

My sister had a bone marrow transplant when she was 9 years old and I was 25. I lived in the hospital with her as she went through that process, which was about three months in isolation in the children’s oncology unit.

So when you were thinking about how to be of service to Ukraine, it made sense to do so as a medic?

I just kind of felt the pull on my heart. Especially once I visited here. When I came here and met the people here and saw what they were living with every day — that’s when I knew I had to do something major.

When you’re not in the classroom, what’s a typical day like?

Some days, if we have a call of an injury, we have to go close to the front line and pick up our soldiers who are hurt. Or we also go on reconnaissance missions. Two weeks ago, we had to do one on foot, which was miserable because we were being followed by Russian drones the whole time.

We had to cross a big, open field, which is the worst thing to be doing with drones in the area. About two minutes after we crossed the field, a drone came over us. Luckily, we were hidden in the tree line by that time.

What does that feel like, in your body and in your mind?

It’s kind of an out-of-body experience, because you’re like, ‘What am I doing? This drone is trying to kill me.’ It’s hard to explain. I didn’t even get scared at the time, which is really weird. It’s just so bizarre, the feeling of having someone hunting you.

Russia’s Rubicon unit, which is their big drone force, is operating in our area now, so we are getting a lot more injuries lately. Two guys in my battalion died two weeks ago, and it was pretty gruesome. They were guys I had worked with, because they were on the evacuation team. So it was disheartening to learn about their passing. It just makes you angry, because it’s just all so tragic.

What are you seeing there on the front lines? What do you want people to know about what you’re seeing?

There’s actually people still living in some of these villages, some civilians. We, in the military, don’t understand. Why are you still living here?

But they don’t want to leave their homes. A lot of them are elderly and they don’t feel like they should have to leave, even though it’s extremely dangerous.

When you’re driving in, you’re driving past destroyed car after destroyed car, and you’re just hoping your car isn’t the next one to get hit. Your driver drives fast, and you hold onto your seat.

Who are you serving alongside? Are they mostly international? Mostly Ukrainian?

In my department, it’s all Ukrainians. But I have a lot of international soldiers in my unit. So it’s a mix.

Ukrainians are always so grateful to meet someone who comes here just to help, for the idealism of it.

I wish we had more support in the U.S. for Ukraine. It’s difficult being here and not being able to explain it. But they appreciate my individual contributions and understand the difference between the person and the country. And they’re appreciative of the past support. That’s one thing that always touches me.

I see a lot of troops wearing American flags on their plate carriers, their body armor, still.

You held off on leaving Louisiana until your two kids were a little older and could better understand your reasons. How has it been for them?

It’s been difficult. I missed my son’s graduation from high school, and that was really hard. And my younger son is not happy I’m here. They both support Ukraine and understand the reasons I’m here. But it’s really hard to have your mom go and sign up for this work.

Do you still feel at home there?

Definitely. I definitely do feel very much at home here. Now that I live closer to the front, we get constant sirens — all the time. It’s more trying.

Although much of it fades into the background. The aerial sirens I don’t even hear anymore. If it’s at night, I just kind of roll over and fall asleep.

But it’s harrowing, living in a situation where you’re constantly hearing about people in your city being injured.