Leleka Foundation has been honored at the Order of Saint Panteleimon Gala 2026, receiving the Certificate of Merit of the Order of Saint Panteleimon for outstanding humanitarian contribution and service.

The recognition came from the Foreign Council USA of the Order of Saint Panteleimon, which cited Leleka’s contributions to healthcare, humanitarian service, and support for Ukraine. The foundation was honored alongside individuals and organizations drawn from medicine, philanthropy, academia, business, government, and the nonprofit sector.

Leleka co-founder and board member Svitlana Kostylova, who had returned from Ukraine days earlier, accepted the recognition together with Head of Strategic Communications Iryna Solomko.

“This summer the front line moved to Kyiv, and not as a figure of speech,” Kostylova told the room. “A soldier at the front has a helmet and a plate carrier and a weapon he can fire back with. A woman in a Kyiv apartment at three in the morning has a hallway wall and whatever she has learned about how to stop bleeding. That is the gap we work in.”

The need has widened along with the war. Strikes on Kyiv and other cities have intensified through 2026, leaving civilians, emergency services, and ambulance crews exposed in ways tactical medicine was not originally built to address.

“This award is not ours,” Solomko said in accepting it. “It belongs to our supporters, and above all it belongs to the medics. Everything we do, we do so that they can save a life — there isn’t a second part to the mission. They are the ones who should be standing here. They can’t. They’re working.”

The Order of Saint Panteleimon is Ukraine’s highest civil award for significant achievements in healthcare and for contributions to the development of Ukrainian society. First conferred in 2009 by Ukraine’s Ministry of Health and named for the patron saint of physicians, it has since the full-scale invasion also been extended to foreign doctors and organizations in recognition of the aid reaching Ukrainian hospitals from abroad. Its foreign councils now operate in more than ten countries. Previous U.S. honorees include Project CURE and Rotary International.