President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine posthumously to an outstanding oncologist, radiologist Leonid Kindzelsky, who saved many liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster.

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“Thanks to this outstanding doctor and scientist, many liquidators of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster were saved, including those who received a lethal dose of radiation.. Chernobyl victims know him very well, but Ukrainians do not know very well about him, ”the head of state noted..

Leonid Kindzelsky was the chief radiologist of the Ministry of Health of the Ukrainian SSR in 1978-1986 and actively participated in the treatment of victims of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. His name is well known among Chernobyl victims, and every year on the day of the doctor's death, liquidators gather at his grave, whom he saved their lives..

Of the group of firefighters who were the first to arrive at the Chernobyl disaster site and received an especially large dose of radiation, 13 liquidators were sent for treatment to Moscow, and 11 patients were sent to the Kiev Institute of Radiology and Oncology to Leonid Kindzelsky.. As a result, everyone in the group of Leonid Kindzelsky survived, and only two from the second group. In total, out of 115 people who were diagnosed with acute radiation sickness and passed through the hands of a Ukrainian professor, only one died..

Kindzelsky understood in time how the protocol for treating bone marrow leukemia differs from the treatment of the effects of radiation. He began to perform operations according to the method of Georges Mate: he implanted the donor bone marrow intravenously without killing the victim's own bone marrow. Bone marrow desorption was also performed.

However, instead of gratitude, the Soviet authorities forbade Leonid Kindzelsky to continue bone marrow transplantation, he was fired from the post of chief radiologist of the Ukrainian SSR..

Due to significant radiation exposure while on duty, Leonid Kindzelsky was ill for many years, but he continued to work actively, leading the department of systemic oncological diseases of the Department of General Oncology and Chemotherapy of the Kiev Research Institute of Oncology. Leonid Kindzelsky passed away on April 19, 1999.