The Ukrainian Week conducted an interview with Maksym Turkevych, the CEO of Neopalymi, an organisation dedicated to supporting Ukrainian soldiers and assisting them in reintegrating into civilian life after experiencing trauma. This interview was part of a collaborative project with the UCU School of Journalism and Communications on youth and community initiatives during the war. The CEO, a UCU student with over five years of experience in the public sector, discussed the creation and operation of the national program for treating deformative trauma. The conversation also covered how the volunteer project selects partner clinics, its future direction, and the importance of team management that prioritizes people over impressive metrics.
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— What prompted the launch of Neopalymi, and why this particular project?
In the early months of the full-scale war, it was evident what needed to be addressed. There were specific urgent needs, like assisting people who had lost their homes and were forced to relocate to Western Ukraine or abroad, so we had clear priorities. As time passed, our team found a direction in which we had expertise and could be more helpful than anyone else. This led to the creation of Neopalymi, through which we began providing assistance to people who had been injured as a result of the war—suffering from burns, scarring, or other combat-related deformities.
I worked with my father, who is a doctor, to create the project. We divided responsibilities: he manages all medical aspects and scientific processes, while I oversee the non-medical aspects.
– Your website mentions that you collaborate with 25 clinics in Ukraine and abroad. What criteria do you use to select partner medical institutions, and do you plan to establish new partnerships?
— Actually, we’re currently collaborating with 32 or 33 clinics, and I distinctly recall that we’re operational across 15 regions, with plans to expand into the 16th. Moreover, we extend our assistance to Chișinău, Kraków, and Warsaw, catering specifically to Neopalymi initiatives aimed at aiding individuals compelled to relocate abroad.
We have a list of material and technical requirements: the necessary equipment we use to provide the highest quality medical care, such as specific categories of lasers. This is our top priority criterion. We also take into account the specialists’ previous experience in these clinics, but we provide additional training if necessary.
We’re looking to broaden our collaborations, albeit in a slightly different format. We’ve crafted a concept and a strategic four-year plan to enhance the infrastructure for rehabilitating individuals affected by war-induced burns or deformative injuries. Our initial step involves establishing a pilot rehabilitation centre in Kyiv dedicated to burns and deformative trauma, followed by expanding to six more centres across Ukraine. Furthermore, we’re aiming to establish two Research and Development centers in Ukraine and Poland. Currently, we’re in discussions with the Polish side, including the Polish embassy in Ukraine.
— What range of services will these centres provide?
—At present, our services primarily centre around advanced cosmetology procedures and specialised treatment for scarring resulting from burns or other injuries. However, our goal is to expand to encompass a broader spectrum of injuries classified as deformities. This will include traditional aesthetics, cosmetology, and plastic surgery. Our upcoming rehabilitation centres will primarily specialise in advanced cosmetology techniques involving hardware and injections, alongside plastic surgery and comprehensive psychological support for patients at every stage. Our aim is to aid their adaptation to a new reality and embrace their transformed selves. Moreover, we plan to collaborate with partners in related fields to enhance our capability in handling deformities that extend beyond traditional aesthetic concerns. In essence, we are striving to offer a comprehensive range of aesthetic medical services.
– As far as I understand from publicly available information, the ‘Neopalymi’ programme operates under a unique protocol for treating deformative trauma. Could you elaborate on who developed this protocol and what makes it distinctive?
– Actually, this wasn’t part of our initial plan. We began addressing this type of trauma around July-August 2022 and soon realised that there is no comprehensive, established protocol anywhere in the world for handling post-combat deformities. There’s a general understanding of how to treat patients at the urgent burn stage, as burn surgeons (combustiologists) do. However, once this stage is completed, the standard state support ends, and patients with deformities are left to fend for themselves.
Our goal is to change this system and the patient’s journey. After receiving care from burn surgeons, patients should progress to dealing with deformities, where they can restore functionality or the aesthetic appearance of affected body parts. When we started working with these patients, we quickly discovered a lack of established protocols.
I can confidently say that we searched extensively and consulted specialists from virtually every country with a developed aesthetic medicine field. From the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, and Italy to the Far East, including Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia—we literally reached out to experts worldwide on this issue.”
We realised that we needed to develop our own approach. A little over a year ago, we announced our national consensus on treating post-combat burns and scars, co-authored by nearly all the key clinics within ‘Neopalymi.’ This initiative also involves world-class specialists from Ireland, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States.
This comprehensive protocol for handling post-combat burn and deformative trauma has been showcased globally, even before its finalisation. We’ve presented it twice in Monaco at the Aesthetic Medicine World Congress and twice in Paris at IMCAS, the two largest aesthetic medicine conferences worldwide. Additionally, we’ve shared our protocol at scientific symposiums in Poland, the Baltic countries, Italy, France, and even Indonesia. Our next steps include presentations in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Our goal is to foster scientific collaboration, deepen our expertise, ensure relevance to modern realities, and provide even higher quality care.
— What has been the most challenging part of the work since 2022?
– A lot of challenges, really, financial issues, misunderstanding, and even rejection of our work. I invested significant effort in explaining to military structures how to identify our patients, why it’s crucial, and how to direct them to us.
Sometimes, these efforts failed, but in other instances, they led to warm and close cooperation. It became crystal clear that almost any injury resulting from torture in Russian captivity is our concern. This resulted in extremely close collaboration with the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Working with the team over these two years was tough. It’s one thing to work with an established team and another to form and guide it through a crisis. At some point, it was challenging to convince patients that everything is free and that they will indeed receive help.
Overall, these are turbulent times, but there are bigger problems and greater challenges. The war is still ongoing, and many men and women are on the front lines. Our work is a small part of compensating for the immense contributions the Armed Forces of Ukraine are making towards our victory.
Therefore, we don’t have the time or luxury to feel down and complain. We just need to sit down and get to work.
— Well, that’s precisely it. With all this responsibility comes a lot of hard work. How do you manage to provide moral support for yourself and your team?
– In my firm belief, the key skill of a good manager today is to create conditions for their team that don’t make them want to hang themselves by the river. It may sound funny or sad, but it’s true. I recently listened to a discussion where the consensus was that teams need to be kept within strict limits, given deadlines, and monitored meticulously. Colleagues who chase ‘successful success’ and demand fantastic, staggering results immediately are willing to burn through 200 new employees for it. I’m a bit different.
I believe the most important thing is to maintain a healthy team culture, especially during wartime when everyone is struggling. It’s not about people wanting to do nothing and just lounge around watching TV. Everyone wants to be useful and do something meaningful, but it’s up to leaders to create the right conditions for that.
Essentially, don’t neglect your employees, show genuine interest in what’s going on with them, offer real sympathy, don’t overload them with an endless list of tasks, and don’t demand unrealistic results overnight. If you trust people, they will strive to live up to that trust and will want to contribute. This approach works for me.
A lot of people on my team are achieving incredible things despite limited resources and tough, emotionally draining conditions. It’s crucial to hold on to your team and keep them united because that’s the only way you’ll all make it through this chaos together. I strongly believe that trying to navigate this madness alone is a sure way to lose your sanity. Together, we stand a much better chance of breaking through.
