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From November 30 to December 7, participants from across Ukraine will compete in nine adaptive sports at HART, the country’s first national multisport event for military veterans recovering from injuries, wounds, or illnesses sustained in the defense of Ukraine.
Team events will include wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, and sitting volleyball. Individual competitions will feature archery, indoor rowing on a simulator, laser run, powerlifting, cycling, and swimming.
Athletes are free to join.
For reference: Around the world, adaptive athletics have become a cornerstone of veteran rehabilitation. In the United States, the Warrior Games have spurred thousands of recovery programs. In the United Kingdom, the Invictus Games reshaped public attitudes toward wounded service members. Similar initiatives in Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia have helped build statewide “sport-based recovery” programs that integrate rehabilitation, mentorship, and social inclusion.
Ukraine is following suit. With support from Ukrgasbank, the Come Back Alive Initiative Center and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs have launched HART as a comprehensive sports-based rehabilitation effort for veterans.
Before the full-scale invasion, 18-year-old Dmytro Tereshchenko planned to become a boxer. However, on February 24, 2022, he enlisted in the Territorial Defense in the Chernihiv oblast. He served on the border and later deployed with his unit to the eastern front.
In March 2023, Dmytro sustained multiple injuries in the Luhansk oblast, and doctors had to amputate his leg. The veteran underwent treatment in Ukraine for five months before traveling to the United States for a prosthetic fitting. During this time, his military unit listed him as AWOL (absent without leave), which halted all his payments. He is now engaged in a legal battle to have this status revoked and his payments restored.
A photographer in America suggested that Dmytro try modeling. After returning to Ukraine, the veteran compiled a portfolio and sent it to modeling agencies. He began his career with a presentation of an adaptive clothing collection. He also walked the runway at Ukrainian Fashion Week this year.
Dmytro Tereshchenko is available for interviews online and in person in Kyiv by prior arrangement.
Before the full-scale invasion, Viktoriia and Bohdan Popov ran a family workshop in Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, working alongside their parents. Together, they kneaded clay, molded and fired products, polished, decorated, and painted each piece.
When the full-scale war broke out, the front line reached Sloviansk, and enemy shelling began to devastate the city. In April 2022, the Popovs evacuated to western Ukraine, returning nine months later to find their workshop damaged by Russian strikes. Following another nearby explosion that rendered the building unsafe, they were forced to find a new workspace.
In November 2025, a Russian shell destroyed their home. Fortunately, Viktoriia and Bohdan were away at the time. They are now living with relatives on the outskirts of Sloviansk and plan to rebuild their house. Having saved their equipment, the couple continues to create ceramics, determined to keep their craft alive.
The Popovs are available to speak with journalists, both in Sloviansk and online.
Early this winter, Kyiv will host HART, Ukraine’s first national multisport event for military veterans recovering from injuries, wounds, or illnesses sustained in the defense of the country. From November 30 to December 7, participants from across Ukraine will compete in nine adaptive sports.
Team events will include wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, and sitting volleyball. Individual competitions will feature archery, indoor rowing on a simulator, laser run, powerlifting, cycling, and swimming.
Athletes are free to join.
Around the world, adaptive athletics have become a cornerstone of veteran rehabilitation. In the United States, the Warrior Games have spurred thousands of recovery programs. In the United Kingdom, the Invictus Games reshaped public attitudes toward wounded service members. Similar initiatives in Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia have helped build statewide “sport-based recovery” programs that integrate rehabilitation, mentorship, and social inclusion.
Ukraine is following suit. With support from Ukrgasbank, the Come Back Alive Initiative Center and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs have launched HART as a comprehensive sports-based rehabilitation effort for veterans.
Valentyn Polianskyi is 24, but three of those years were spent in Russian captivity. A native of Ukraine’s Kherson region, he signed a contract with the 36th Separate Marine Brigade at 21 and soon found himself on the front lines of Russia’s full-scale assault. By February 26, 2022, he was stationed at the Illich steel plant in Mariupol, helping to secure provisions for approximately 130 troops as the siege tightened.
When the order to surrender was issued, his partner pleaded with him to do whatever it took to survive and come home. She was pregnant at the time; their daughter was born after he had already been taken prisoner.
Polianskyi says he endured three years of severe abuse in detention. He recalls beatings, electric shocks, routine humiliation, food deprivation, and being forced to memorize Russian songs. He was released on April 19, 2025, as part of a prisoner exchange.
After returning home, Polianskyi married and initially considered rejoining his brigade, but his wife asked him not to go back to the front. He is now working to rebuild his life and adjust to civilian routines.
Those wishing to meet or speak with him can do so, both online or in person in Khmelnytskyi, by prior arrangement.
In less than two and a half years, Yulia Dudysheva, herself displaced from Crimea, has rebuilt and renovated 11 homes free of charge for families uprooted by war.
Before russia’s full-scale invasion, Dudysheva lived and worked in the Chernihiv region, building a career in advertising while occasionally helping friends with home repairs. But after Ukrainian forces liberated the region in the spring of 2022, she left her job, determined to find a new purpose in the wake of destruction.
By June 2023, she had launched a volunteer initiative called “Cozy Homes for IDPs”, focusing on restoring, repairing, and decorating homes for internally displaced people. Her first projects were for friends who offered their houses for renovation. Soon, her efforts expanded to other families who had lost their homes in the war.
Her most recent project took her to Ternopil, where she renovated a house for a family from Enerhodar, a city still under russian occupation.
Dudysheva also shares her work online, documenting every stage of the repairs and attracting a growing community of followers who help fund materials for her projects. Now back in the Chernihiv region, she continues her mission to bring warmth and stability to those rebuilding their lives after displacement.
Interviews with Yulia Dudysheva can be arranged both online and in person by prior appointment.
A Ukrainian Armed Forces veteran who lost three limbs in combat has set a national record for climbing the country’s highest peak. The official announcement will take place in the Lviv region on November 17, recognizing Zakhar Biriukov for the first ascent to the summit of Hoverla by a person with three amputated limbs.
Biriukov, 35, sustained devastating injuries in 2022 while serving on the front lines – losing both arms, one leg, an eye, and part of his hearing, along with severe facial wounds. Despite the trauma, he has dedicated his recovery to helping other service members find purpose after injury.
With his mission focused on supporting fellow service members to rebuild their lives, this climb up Hoverla, Ukraine’s 6,762-foot mountain, became a testament that physical loss is no match for inner strength and determination. “Life is not over, it’s just beginning,” Biriukov said, reflecting on his achievement and his determination to inspire others facing similar challenges.
Journalists are invited to attend the record announcement. Media accreditation is required.
On November 15, the human right action ‘Empty Chairs’ will take place in Kyiv in support of journalists, writers, cultural artists and human rights defenders who have gone missing, been imprisoned or are in captivity due to the russia’s war against Ukraine. The event is organized by PEN Ukraine and Center for Civil Liberties.
The event aims to unite the efforts of all those who support Ukraine and fight for the release of civilians and prisoners of war illegally detained as a result of russia’s war against Ukraine.
During the event, stories will be told about missing, illegally detained, and imprisoned Ukrainian authors, artists, and human rights defenders. Former prisoners will also join the event:
- Maksym Butkevych, Ukrainian human rights activist, journalist, public figure, and military officer who was held captive from June 2022 to October 2024;
- Dmytro Khilyuk, a UNIAN journalist who was held captive in russia from March 2022 to August 2025;
- Leniie Umerova, a Crimean Tatar activist who was held captive in russia from December 2022 to September 2024;
- Yulia “Taira” Paievska, a soldier, volunteer, poet, and public figure who was held captive in russia from March 16 to June 17, 2022;
- Vladislav Yesipenko, a freelance citizen journalist and correspondent for Radio Liberty’s Crimean service, who was held in captivity by the russian occupation authorities from March 2021 to June 20, 2025.
The event will be hosted by Maxim Sitnikov, Executive Director of Ukrainian PEN, and Alexandra Romantsova, Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties.
During the event, the organizers will set up a symbolic installation of empty chairs bearing the names of illegally imprisoned, captured, and missing authors, media workers, artists, and human rights defenders.
Event organizers: Ukrainian PEN, Center for Civil Liberties.
Imprisoned Writers Day, or Empty Chair Day, is observed on November 15 at the initiative of International PEN. Empty chairs at human rights events on this day symbolize authors who cannot be with us due to imprisonment, persecution, disappearance, or murder.
Since 2018, Ukrainian PEN, together with the Center for Civil Liberties, has been organizing a human rights event on this day to remind Ukrainians and the world about writers, artists, and all Ukrainians who cannot be with us on this day due to russian aggression.
Before russia’s full-scale invasion, Roman Chernenko worked as a bartender in Kharkiv, leading an ordinary civilian life. But in the summer of 2022, he enlisted in Ukraine’s Defense Forces and was later deployed to the embattled Bakhmut area.
Two years later, in 2024, Chernenko’s life changed in an instant when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine and lost his leg. After undergoing extensive treatment, he began rehabilitation at the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, where he learned to walk again using his first prosthesis.
Determined to help others facing the same challenges, Chernenko stayed on at the center – this time as a member of its team. Drawing from his own experience, he now supports fellow veterans on their path to physical and emotional recovery.
Looking ahead, Chernenko plans to introduce golf therapy for wounded soldiers, saying the sport helps alleviate phantom pain and restore confidence.
Those who wish to meet or speak with Roman Chernenko can do so by prior arrangement, either online or in person in Lviv.
Bioengineer and veteran Oleksandr Zozuliak began defending Ukraine in 2014. He served in the artillery unit of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade of the Ground Forces, then known as the Mountain Infantry. His brigade fought in the Zolote area of Luhansk Oblast and later in Debaltseve, Donetsk Oblast, where Zozuliak commanded a mortar battery platoon.
On January 25, 2015, during fierce fighting near Debaltseve, a russian tank drove directly into Zozuliak’s trench. He tried to dodge the vehicle, hoping to destroy it with a hand-held grenade launcher. His quick reaction caused the tank to get stuck in the trench, allowing his comrades to hit it. The damaged vehicle was later towed away with a cable to free him from underneath.
Zozuliak suffered severe injuries: multiple broken ribs, a fractured pelvis, damaged right arm and left leg, torn muscles, chest and abdominal trauma, head contusions, and burns. His left arm was the most badly injured and had to be amputated. Doctors told him he would never walk again. Yet, within a year, he was back on his feet, and soon after, back at work, this time in the police force.
Refusing to give up an active life, Zozuliak discovered archery. Working with a prosthetist, he designed a custom prosthesis for shooting, later improving it himself. The modified device includes a special clamp that lets him draw the bowstring. In 2023, he became Ukraine’s national archery champion among athletes with disabilities. He also represented Ukraine at the Invictus Games in 2017 and 2018, competing in cycling, swimming, and archery.
Zozuliak was among the first in Ukraine to receive a cutting-edge bionic prosthesis. Today, he works as a prosthetist-orthotist technician, manufacturing and fitting advanced prosthetic limbs for veterans who lost theirs in the war. These modern prostheses feature multi-sensor systems, and Zozuliak personally tests new designs on himself before adapting them for others.
By prior arrangement, journalists can meet with Oleksandr Zozuliak in Kyiv.
