Themes by tag: casualties

Oleksandr was 29 when he was wounded and lost his leg in 2014 at the front near Luhansk. What came next is amputation, a wheelchair and a prosthesis, which Oleksandr refused to wear, because he did not accept himself without a leg. The veteran began abusing alcohol and drugs.

In the end, the man managed to overcome his addictions. And after visiting the city of Lourdes in France, his panic attacks and terrible headaches disappeared. Oleksandr decided that such trips should be shared with other servicemen. The veteran posted an invitation on social media looking for those who would like to go and those who would help to pay for the trips. A sponsor was found quickly, and there were so many people willing to join the trip that he had to order a tourist bus for the servicemen. This is how the “Hero Bus” project came to be. Oleksandr has already lost count of how many military personnel he managed to show the miraculous springs of Lourdes, Krakow, the Louvre, how many people he took to the Red Sea so they could take a swim in it.

Since February 24, 2022, Oleksandr has taken only military personnel with amputation of one leg above the knee on his travels, because he has suffered the same kind of amputation, and the veteran knows exactly how to help these people.

• casualties
• military

Oleh, Yaroslav, Hlib, and their grandmother Oleksandra left their native village of Hnutove, which was one of the first settlements to experience the horror of a full-scale Russian offensive. Seeking salvation, the family went to Mariupol, but later it was besieged by Russians. Later, there was no electricity, gas, water, or service. The children and their grandmother had to survive literally. They stayed in the basement for two months. They managed to escape the occupation in their native village by being subjected to filtration in the notorious camp system. Recently, thanks to donors, the Voices of Children Charity Foundation bought a house for a family in the Kyiv region.

In 2017, Oleh became the protagonist of the Danish director’s documentary The Distant Barking of Dogs, which told the story of Ukrainians on the front line that was shortlisted among 15 candidates for the 2019 Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature.

• casualties
• children
• occupation

Media accreditation for the open training session of the Ukrainian wheelchair basketball national team at the 2023 Invictus Games, which will take place on July 27 in Kyiv, has started.

At the start of the open training session, the team members will be addressed by Minister of Veterans Affairs Yuliia Laputina, Minister of Youth and Sports Vadym Gutzeit, representatives of the NGO Invictus Games, as well as the coach of the Ukrainian national wheelchair basketball team Taras Shpuk and the coach of the US national wheelchair basketball team Hannah Walker.

Journalists can attend the wheelchair basketball game and talk to national team members.

Important notice:  The program of the open training session and detailed information about the venue will be sent only to accredited journalists who agree to the terms of the press embargo on information dissemination. Accreditation lasts until 9:00 PM on July 26.

• casualties
• military
• Kyiv

The artist Serhii Petrov, known professionally as Bob Basset, produces accessories in the style of techno-romanticism. Serhii first created the masks for himself: the man has a strabismus and says that the mask simplifies interpersonal communication. In January 2023, the artist created his first mask for a soldier, Masi Nayyem, who lost his eye at the front. According to Nayyem, the leather mask by Bob Basset is more comfortable than standard bandages because it has a triple fastening system and is made of soft leather. Serhii was asked to make a second mask by the daughter of an Azov soldier who was wounded in Mariupol.

The Mask for a Hero is a charity project the artist managed to get a grant for to cover the cost of materials and rent of a room to work on the masks for the military.

For reference: Bob Basset started his workshop back in 1989. He has collaborated with Metallica, Korn, Avril Lavigne, Zayn Malik, Ghost, Givenchy, Yiapanis, Riccardo Tisci, Beissoul & Einius.

• casualties
• culture
• military

The charity initiative “Save Beauty” is already working with civilians and military personnel who suffered from the russian aggression both in the rear and at the front. The project fully covers the costs of doctor’s consultations, examinations, surgeries and post-surgery procedures. After the plastic surgery, the team, together with doctors and psychologists, supports the patient over the course of their rehabilitation.

Journalists are invited to talk with doctors and, if possible, with patients who came for help.

• casualties
• russian crimes

Mykhailo Konik lived most of his life in Mariupol, where he founded 40 hives apiary. On February 24, 2022, when Russia began to destroy the city, Mykhailo and his family hid in the basement for several days from powerful shelling, and the man was injured. Eventually, they managed to leave for the Ternopil region and later for Mykhailo’s small homeland, Khmelnytskyi. The man knew that there was an apiary in the forestry, so he turned to its director and offered his help. The apiary was in poor condition, Mykhailo says, and the conditions for bees in Khmelnytskyi are worse than in Mariupol. Nevertheless, Mykhailo managed to get the apiary up and running and last year produced about two tons of honey.

Forty of Mykhailo’s hives remained in Mariupol, and he was unable to take them out. The man dreams of getting back to his hometown Mariupol to start rebuilding the apiary in the city that was ruined by the Russians.

• casualties
• Khmelnytskyi

Before the full-scale war, Maksym worked as a mechanic at the Antonov plant: he serviced the world’s largest airplane, the Antonov AN-225 Mriya, which the occupiers later destroyed. On the eve of the occupation of Hostomel, he managed to take his daughter and mother out of the city while he himself returned. The man saw civilians being shot. He hid in the basement for several weeks. After all, he has been through, he volunteered to go to the front. He fought in the Donetsk region, was hit by a mine in Soledar, and lost his leg. Now the 29-year-old veteran is preparing for prosthetics at the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center. 

• casualties
• military
• occupation

Mykola Polezhayev is a pyrotechnic engineer from the Mykolaiv region who has been working in this field for over 7 years. In April this year, a newly developed cluster munition detonated near Mykola in the garage cooperative where he came to work. An EOD 9 special protective suit saved him from death. However, his injuries could not be avoided: his left hand had burns, fractures, and shrapnel wounds, and his right finger was broken.

Now the pyrotechnician has undergone rehabilitation and is back working side by side with his colleagues to defuse ammunition.

For reference: Currently, 30% of Ukraine’s territory is contaminated with mines. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, 221 people have been killed by landmines or unexploded ordnance, and 450 others have been injured.

• casualties
• Mykolaiv

The Military Sewing Company is a voluntary association of people who volunteer to sew adaptive clothing for wounded soldiers: pants, shorts, underpants, T-shirts, etc. The adaptive clothing with Velcro, ties, or buttons is designed so injured defenders can put it on comfortably and painlessly. 

The Military Sewing Company has already produced over 30,000 pieces of such clothing. They are sent to more than 50 medical institutions across Ukraine, as well as to soldiers in need of such garments.

The Military Sewing Company was founded in Dnipro. People who have joined the initiative and sew clothes (in workshops, sewing shops, or home-based ones) are located in Kyiv, Dnipro, Rivne, Poltava, Zhytomyr, and Lviv. Some seamstresses are actively involved in sewing while residing in Norway, Germany, and Canada.

• casualties
• military
• volunteers
• Dnipro
• Kyiv
• Lviv
• Poltava
• Zhytomyr
• Rivne

Joe is 61 years old. Twenty years ago, he served at New York City Police Department and later trained police paramedics. But Joe has been in Ukraine for almost a year now: he joined the Ukrainian-Israeli medical volunteer mission FRIDA.  As a paramedic (sometimes as an ECG technician), he travels with specialists to the de-occupied and frontline regions to help people. For example, the man had to help patients in bomb shelters. And also in settlements where no doctors were left due to the full-scale invasion of Russia.

For reference: FRIDA Ukraine, the Ukrainian-Israeli medical volunteer charitable mission, has been helping civilians since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In particular, they counsel people, operate, evacuate and distribute medicines. Volunteer doctors (of various medical specialties) travel to the regions (for example, Kharkiv, Kherson, or Donetsk) to help local residents with health issues. 

• casualties
• doctors
• volunteers