Themes by tag: casualties

In 2015, Ksenia Kleinos opened a creative space in Berdiansk (the city is occupied now), Zaporizhia region — the anti-cafe “CHAS YE” (there is time). When russia’s full-scale invasion started, the woman was at home: at 4 AM she heard explosions. She decided to go to a village near Berdiansk, because she thought it was safer there. She lived in the village for 40 days and saw helicopters circling over the house. The woman decided to leave: she had to go through 16 russian checkpoints to get to Zaporizhia.

In April 2022, Ksenia moved to Lviv. She decided to open a coffee shop (in the summer she applied for a grant from the state). At the beginning of autumn, she launched the public project “We Are Berdiansk” to support other refugees from Berdiansk. Meanwhile, the answer came: Ksenia received the grant of UAH 240,000. Nowadays, Ksenia gathers people from Berdiansk in her cafe, where she holds, in particular, art master classes, and they also play board games there. The community even has its own reading club.

In addition, two landsmen of Ksenia work in her coffee shop, which the woman named in honor of an island in Berdiansk creek “Dzendzik.”

• casualties
• occupation
• women
• Lviv

Oleksii Prytula is a veterinarian from Odesa. During the full-scale invasion, he decided to join the defense of the country. In September 2022, he was seriously injured and lost both legs. Despite this adversity, he returned to work.

The man received prostheses and underwent rehabilitation at the Superhumans Center in Lviv. The veteran’s employer arranged a special workplace for him. So Oleksii can resume his work treating his four-legged patients.

• animals
• casualties
• doctors
• military
• Odesa

Lerane Khaibulaieva is a Crimean Tatar who was born in Uzbekistan, where the soviet authorities deported her family from Crimea. Lerane returned to the peninsula as a child. And in 2016, after russia’s occupation of Crimea, she was forced to leave her home. She settled in Kyiv region. In 2022, she fled Irpin, which the russians were trying to assault at the time.

In Crimea, Lerane worked as a journalist covering economic topics. However, the woman always dreamed of creating a family cafe. She opened a small café serving chebureki in Kyiv region, and later a cafe in the suburbs of the capital. In Lviv, which became Lerane’s fourth home, she again returned to doing her favorite thing and founded Crimean Yard cafe.

Her own business helps the woman support her son, who is still in school, as well as her husband, a veteran who fought the anti-terrorist operation and defended Ukraine during the full-scale invasion. He is now back from the front line due to a disability. Lerane says that she dreams to move one more time – to Crimea, liberated from the russians.

• casualties
• food
• occupation
• women
• Lviv

Researchers at the Tarnovskyi Chernihiv Regional Historical Museum discover historical artifacts that remain in the basement of a school in the village of Yahidne in Chernihiv Oblast. A place where the occupiers kept over 300 local residents in inhumane conditions for almost a month in the spring of 2022.

Experts have been visiting a local school in Yahidne since September last year. During this time, they have examined and documented more than 600 findings. Among material evidence, there were pieces of clothes, shoes, personal belongings, knives, books, boxes of enemy military rations, hand sanitizer bottles, Russian newspapers, wooden pallets on which the prisoners had to sit and sleep, and even plastic water bottles that served as a toilet. The specialists are now done with describing the items of evidence in 5 rooms and are now searching the gym (the largest space in the basement). The work is scheduled to be completed in February.

All examined items will remain in place. The authorities plan to convert the school basement into a museum. 

Journalists are welcome to join the museum’s researchers and cover their work.

For reference: The village of Yahidne is located near Chernihiv. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russians set up their headquarters in a local school. They forced 299 adult local residents and 67 children into the school basement and held villagers captive for almost a month (almost an entire village). The basement area is 197 square meters. For lack of space, people had to sleep sitting up, and there was also a lack of oxygen. 10 people died.

In February, the famous American TIME magazine released a cover with the Yahidne village basement. 

• casualties
• dead
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Chernihiv

The InNikos Canine Assisted Therapy Center has recently opened in Kyiv. A team of therapy dogs, dog handlers, psychologists, and a rehabilitation therapist help people improve their emotional well-being and physical health. The military personnel, families of defenders, IDPs, children who survived the occupation, and in general people affected by the war, are center clients. The Center provides free-of-charge sessions, and group and individual therapy is available. 

The center employs 9 therapy dogs: six have been trained and tested, and three more are in training. The oldest mixed-breed therapy dog (Labrador Retriever + German Shepherd) is 10-year-old Nika. The youngest dog in the center is a 5-month-old Belgian Malinois named Barcelona. She is still undergoing a training program, but she is already involved in classes, mostly with the military and children. 

The organizers plan to launch a similar canine therapy project in 4 more cities.

• animals
• casualties
• psychological support
• Kyiv

Since 2020, Vladyslav “Samurai” Yeshchenko has been engaged in humanitarian demining. The man dealt with defusing mines in eastern Ukraine. In the wake of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, Vladyslav mobilized and took up the position of sapper. In August 2022, the soldier was blown up when performing a combat mission, Vladyslav survived 84 mine explosions. The man fell into a coma and lost his eyesight and partially his hearing. However, despite his severe injury, Vladyslav did not give up: he underwent a rehabilitation program, got married, and founded the “Let’s See the Victory” charity organization. Vladyslav supports other soldiers who have suffered eye injuries. In addition, the charity launched an educational project for school students called Phoenix Visual Rehabilitation out of the Darkness. Together with his wife, the soldier visits educational institutions to give practical classes on accompanying the blind and visually impaired. Vladyslav has already visited three schools in Kyiv and taught classes for 170 students.

• casualties
• military

On January 23, a virtual reality room will be opened in Lviv region. Its purpose is to assist with the rehabilitation of defenders with the help of the latest technologies. The room was created with the assistance of the charity fund “With an Angel on a Shoulder.”

The facility will conduct rehabilitation sessions utilizing VR helmets, with a particular focus on addressing phantom pains and enhancing the psycho-emotional well-being of individuals.

• casualties
• Lviv

On January 20, Lviv will host a presentation of the Pokrova Lviv AMP club soccer. Its players are Ukrainian war amputees. 

A team of 14 members has an athletic field training twice a week. The players on the pitch are lower-extremity amputees, and the goalkeepers are upper-extremity amputees. The field players use forearm crutches and play without prostheses.

During the event, the team will tell more about the team’s participation in this year’s international championship. The journalists can also talk to the players and coach Bohdan Melnyk.

• casualties
• military
• Lviv

Sviatoslav Nikolaichuk became the founder of “Genesis & System Solutions” center for the rehabilitation of veterans in Vinnytsia. In 2015, the man voluntarily joined the Defense Forces and served as a signalman in the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade. Sviatoslav served for one and a half years, participated in the battles near Popasna, Luhansk region (now the city has been completely destroyed by the russians and is under occupation). He was discharged after the birth of his third child.

With the beginning of the big war, the veteran volunteered, and later began to create a rehabilitation center to help soldiers, who have lost their limbs, manage phantom pains.

One of the servicemen who have already walked this path is the veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykyta Makazan, who had lost his leg near Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Virtual reality helped the man to get rid of phantom pain – the same technology will be used in “Genesis & System Solutions.” The assistance to veterans will be provided using modern equipment. For this purpose, they purchased virtual reality glasses, two laptops, suspension systems and special exercise bikes for the rehabilitation of the upper and lower limbs. The center received financial support worth UAH 2.5 million from the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation. In addition to virtual reality, the center will also feature traditional rehabilitation. Currently, the facility is already accepting veterans, and will officially open on January 29. 

• casualties
• doctors
• Vinnytsia

“The Superhumans Center” (a state-of-the-art center specializing in advanced rehabilitation and prosthetic services for war victims and amputees) assists patients with job opportunities. They have developed a program to help people with prosthetic devices find jobs (currently, they offer about 230 positions).

For example, agricultural companies, restaurants, and IT careers are those businesses hiring veterans most of all. 

Recently, one of the Center’s patients (a civilian with an upper limb prosthetic) got employment in catering.

Journalists can learn more about this program and talk to the participants who have been helped to find a job, wherever possible.

• casualties
• military
• Lviv