By Thomas Peter
NIZHYN, Ukraine (Reuters) – Oleksandr Revtiukh fires a fierce hook at the experienced fighter facing him. He is in the boxing ring eight months after he lost his left arm and most of his left leg to mine explosions while fighting in Ukraine.
Revtiukh follows him with a growling thrust. His old life is over. Just two years ago, he was enjoying a comfortable civilian life as an electronics technician abroad before returning to Ukraine to enlist and fight against the Russian invasion.
A furious uppercut that roars with effort. The war left trauma. Now he must accept what happened to him and learn to live without his lost limbs.
“It’s like a newborn child,” says the 33-year-old during a break from training in a gym in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. “You have to get to know the world from the inside out.”
Revtiukh, who wears a prosthetic leg, is one of tens of thousands of Ukrainian combat amputees adjusting to a new life as a civilian or back in the military.
His sister Natasha films the sparring session with leading Ukrainian boxer Aram Faniyan to upload to her brother’s social media accounts, where he tries to make a name for himself as a motivational speaker for others in his position.
“I can’t be afraid of making mistakes,” Revtiukh told Reuters. “Look for a way out, there is a way through the thorns to the stars. That’s my motto.”
Revtiukh, who left a well-paying job in Hungary to fight in Ukraine in April 2022, lost an arm and a leg during the summer counteroffensive in June last year and narrowly escaped death. He benefited from his family’s support as he underwent surgery and rehabilitation through the state.
Whatever comes next, he will have to forge his own path, in a country where many amputees say budget constraints, social taboos and lack of job opportunities make this transition difficult.
Former soldier and lawyer Masi Nayyem, co-founder of Pryncyp, a human rights organization that represents soldiers, estimates that between 20,000 and 50,000 soldiers have undergone amputations in Ukraine since Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022.
Official figures are not released and are considered sensitive by the military, but as the war enters its third year with no end in sight, the numbers are only set to rise.
Splinter hits spine
Nayyem said there were too few jobs for the wounded and most initiatives to help them were based in cities, leaving maimed soldiers stranded in rural areas and small towns.
“What becomes of a person who is not integrated? He’ll be depressed and won’t be able to make money.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs, which is responsible for amputees, declined to provide official figures on the number of soldiers who lost limbs. The company did not respond to criticism that it was not doing enough to support amputees as they re-enter society with prosthetics after initial hospital rehab.
Rostyslav Prystupa, a former soldier who was partially paralyzed after shrapnel hit his spine during combat in Mariupol, said he was aware that veterans also needed to learn to support themselves in civilian life.
“If you keep doing everything for people, they won’t learn to do it themselves,” he added. “You’re not going to do everything for her her whole life. At some point I’ll have to do it myself, and then I won’t be able to do it anymore and no one will be there.”
NO REGRETS: WE SET AN EXAMPLE
Revtiukh is close to his family and recently visited his parents’ home in Nizhyn, northeast of Kiev. As he waited outside, his grandmother cried as she hugged Revtiukh, whom she had not seen since his arm and leg were blown off in two separate mine explosions.
“My little Sasha. “I thank God you’re alive,” she sobbed, using the diminutive of his first name.
Revtiukh described how he was wounded while setting off anti-personnel mines during chaotic fighting to retake territory from the Russians in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
He remembered almost choking on the dirt and shrapnel in his mouth after an explosion, but a fellow soldier, a 22-year-old named Gleb, who was also wounded, cleared his airway and saved his life.
As Revtiukh begins his journey into civilian life, the boxing enthusiast is initially trying his hand at being a motivational coach and eventually plans to become a history teacher in his hometown of Nizhyn in northern Ukraine.
He has no regrets about the path he chose and says he and other veterans like him would set an example for the next generation.
“They will look to us as a role model in the fight for independence, freedom of expression and protection of human life.”