Themes by tag: military

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

Women from the IT industry, who have been actively helping Ukrainian defenders since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, make infantry shovels for the military. They realized that, although such shovels are needed by the majority of Ukrainian soldiers, it is extremely difficult to find an inexpensive shovel of good quality. Therefore, the girls united in a volunteer initiative called “Teeth Shovel.” They managed to establish the production of high-quality shovels, costing UAH 150 per piece. “Teeth shovel” has already handed over 18,000 shovels to Ukrainian fighters. Currently, the goal of the “toothy” girls is to provide 30,000 soldiers with infantry shovels.

• military
• volunteers
• women

Daniel Johnson, a member of the Ukrainian LGBT community, served in eastern Ukraine from 2015 to 2018 and was a tank commander. He was demobilized and entitled to the status of a combatant. When the full-scale invasion began, he returned to the army. On February 25, Daniel participated in the battles for Chernihiv until he was wounded in April. For his service, the soldier received an award for “defense of the city of Chernihiv”. After rehabilitation, Daniel went to the East to continue his service. In February 2023, he completed a psychology course and was promoted to the psychology officer position. Daniel says he faced discrimination because of his orientation. He was even forced to transfer to another unit because for this particular reason.

• military
• LGBT

Before the full-scale Russian invasion, the medic with the call sign Shining got a degree in history and archaeology and planned to enter the field. With the outbreak of the great war, Shining decided that the history teacher’s classroom could wait, but evacuating the wounded from the front line was urgent business. So she volunteered to join the Hospitallers medical battalion. She rescued the injured military personnel in the hottest spots of the frontline, and now she is working in one of the stabilization centers. This is a place to stabilize wounded soldiers’ health conditions as quickly as possible, and everything is done to help them get to a hospital. The girl often had to perform resuscitation in extreme conditions, bringing defenders back to life. But sometimes doctors are powerless. In such cases, Shining is afraid to see the face of a soldier whose life they failed to save on the news.

The girl is not disclosing her real name for security reasons.

• doctors
• military
• women

Vinnytsia based volunteer Maksym Huzii received a trophy from the Ukrainian defenders from the Avdiivka axis – a used tube from the Javelin anti-tank system. Then Maksym got the idea to make something out of these weapons that could once again be useful for the Ukrainian army. Together with Vinnytsia engineers, Maksym created powerful audio systems based on the tubes. One speaker weighs 47 kilograms and produces a powerful sound. The volunteer plans to auction and raffle off these speakers among foreign donors in order to receive funding to buy ambulances, which are needed at the frontline. The first speaker has already been purchased by a Ukrainian IT worker who lives in the U.S. He bought it for UAH 500,000. 

• culture
• military
• volunteers
• Vinnytsia

Before the start of russia’s full-scale invasion, Yuliia Vitova worked as a journalist, her husband was a TV cameraman. In the first days of the war, he was mobilized and became a fighter in the territorial defense forces. The woman made news reports, and a little later became a TV presenter. Yuliia often had to hold back her emotions during live broadcasts, because her husband was in the area attacked by the enemy. In the end, Yuliia decided that it was time to join her beloved: on March 13, 2023, the woman joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Currently, Yuliia has the call sign “Volyn” and serves together with her husband as a rifleman. She admits that with her height of 1.57 centimeters and a weight of 45 kilograms, the military service was not easy at first. After the victory of Ukraine, the servicewoman plans to become a psychologist and support those who need her help.

Important notice: Yuliia Vitova is in a war zone. She is ready to talk to journalists online and provide the necessary video and photo materials.

• military
• women

Denys Dudnyk is a professional pilot who served at the Sevastopol international airport in Belbek from 1993 to 1995. In 2014, he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and participated in the battles near Volnovakha and Debaltseve. After his demobilization in 2015, Denys set up a knifemaking workshop as a therapy for the military. When the full-scale invasion began, Denys enlisted in the army again. Russians destroyed his workshop and home in the Kyiv region, and the soldier was injured at the front. Later, Denys took part in the Ukrainian Veterans Fund’s Varto 2.0 project, secured financial support, and opened the Tanto psychological assistance hub in Irpin. The hub employs psychologists ready to provide psychological assistance to veterans and those who lost loved ones during the war.

• military
• psychological support
• Kyiv

Oleksii Kushner took up arms in 2014 and fought as an Azov regiment member. After demobilization, he experienced problems with socialization. The man began his rehabilitation with long walks and hikes in the mountains. Over time, he realized that the mountains made him feel a sense of calm. In 2016, Oleksii started work as a mountain hiking trip guide for other military personnel. On February 24, 2022, Kushner enlisted in the army again and is now defending Ukraine at the front. But he is already looking for a location to go back to practice mountain therapy for the military, however, not including hiking this time. After all, many service members who have been injured and need rehabilitation may be unable to handle long climbs. Oleksii plans to implement the mountains rehab project with the money he received as compensation for the death of his military father.

Journalists can contact Oleksii online. In addition, the soldier can send journalists photos and videos of his previous projects on mountain therapy.

• military
• psychological support

Dmytro is an anesthesiologist-intensivist by profession. He joined the army on February 25, 2022, took part in battles along the Bakhmut axis. Even in civilian life, the man was interested in electric vehicles: unicycles and electric scooters. And in May 2022, he decided to try a unicycle at the front. He bought a used device, camouflaged it and took it with him to the East. Since then, he has successfully used the unusual transport. The military man says that the unicycle saves him a lot of time, especially in those places where you have to walk for a long time. He also uses a unicycle on combat missions. Now he is teaching his brothers in arms a new way of moving at the front. Dmytro is currently on vacation in the capital and is willing to talk about his experience.

• military

The preparation of Ukraine’s national team for the Invictus Games continues. This year the competition will be held in the German city of Düsseldorf (September 9-16).

Ukraine will be represented by a team of 24 athletes. These are servicemen and veterans of the russo-Ukrainian war, who were injured during or as a result of performing official duties in the combat zone.

They will participate in archery, athletics, cycling, powerlifting, indoor rowing competitions, etc.

For reference: the Invictus Games is an international Paralympic sports competition. It was founded by British Prince Harry in 2014.

• casualties
• military