By Thomas Peter, Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey and Vitalii Hnidiy
DONETSK REGION, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukrainian commander Odin’s lower leg was blown away in a mine explosion last year. Now he’s back in the trenches.
“I had offers to return to my local academy as a teacher or to work in a military service office in Odessa,” the 32-year-old from the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade told Reuters from a cramped bunker on the front line in the eastern Donetsk region.
“I said I had no interest in those positions.”
Mango, a 28-year-old tank gunner, saw his hand mangled by shrapnel during fighting in Mariupol two years ago before he was captured by the Russians. He also returned to the front, as logistics chief of a battalion in the Azov Brigade, which defended the southern city for months.
Ukraine’s exhausted and weakened army needs all the help it can get. It is being pushed back by its far larger and more powerful enemy around the eastern town of Avdiivka, while it is coming under increasing pressure on other sectors of the front.
“When I came back from captivity, I realized that the war was not over,” said Mango, who, like Odin and most Ukrainian soldiers, uses his military call sign for security reasons.
“Even if I can’t sit in a tank, I can still be useful. I can still fight a little.”
The two soldiers are among thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who have lost limbs since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in early 2022. While the Kyiv government declined to share data on victims it deems sensitive, Pryncyp, a leading human rights organization representing the military, shared data on victims it deems sensitive Personnel to 20,000 to 50,000.
Battlefields are littered with mines, while artillery and drone attacks are a constant threat, meaning the number of mines is steadily increasing.
Reuters interviewed 20 military amputees for this article, seven of whom had returned to the army or planned to do so. For many of those who are able, the desire to support their beleaguered comrades on the battlefield remains strong.
Masi Nayyem, co-founder of Pryncyp, said it was quite common to see soldiers with artificial limbs still in service, although he did not know how many had returned to the military and how many had entered civilian life.
The nature of their role will often be determined by the extent of the injuries, said Nayyem, who lost an eye in combat in June 2022. Soldiers with below-the-knee amputations, for example, are often considered fit for duty in support units but not for highly mobile or specialized roles, Pryncyp said.
Tony Bloomfield, head of operations at British military veterans charity Blesma, said it was generally extremely rare for soldiers who had lost a limb to return to conflict, but that this had happened in Ukraine.
“The nature of the conflict results in a lot of limb loss,” said Bloomfield, whose team has spent time with wounded Ukrainian soldiers to help them adjust to losing limbs, adding that artillery fire is one of the causes The main causes of the injuries were.
“Some of the Ukrainians we met are keen to go back and fight if they are able,” he said. “The difference here, again, for Ukraine, is that when you leave the military, your country is still at war. And you’re still at risk of injury.”
“MY HAND WASN’T THERE ANYMORE”
Kiev is desperate to replenish its ranks.
Soldiers say they are outnumbered and outgunned along the 1,000km front line in eastern and southern Ukraine. During Moscow’s months-long assault on Avdiivka, some Ukrainian troops said they were outnumbered about seven to one.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill this month lowering the draft age from 27 to 25, while a mobilization bill aimed at drafting potentially hundreds of thousands more troops has been slow to make its way through parliament.
Both Odin and Mango – professional soldiers who were in the military before the Russian invasion – expressed a sense of responsibility for the soldiers they left behind in the trenches and their guilt for surviving their injuries and being in relative safety away from the City life could fight.
Odin did not hesitate to ask his superiors for permission to return to battle after undergoing surgery and rehabilitation with a prosthetic limb.
In his mortar position in Donetsk, he moves freely up and down the trenches, talking to members of his unit and giving orders. But he says he is still very afraid of setting off a mine again while fighting Russian forces.
“Although some said that everything was bad and that it was impossible to continue a normal life, I live a full life,” he said later, sitting on a bed in the bunker and lifting one trouser leg to reveal his prosthetics.
“It’s just different twice a day: in the morning when I put the prosthesis on and in the evening when I take it off,” he added.
Mango was one of hundreds of Ukrainians who defended the Azostal steel mill in an ultimately futile last stand to hold the city of Mariupol before it fell in May 2022.
“I wanted to look at my watch and see what time it was,” he recalled of the day of the injury. “I raised my hand and saw that my watch was no longer there. My hand was all torn up, bones sticking out and stuff.”
It was not easy to convince top politicians that he still had a military role to play. Mango said he had to ask his commander to submit a report to authorities confirming there was a suitable position for him in the unit.
“At every medical exam, there was always a surgeon who asked me if I had reconsidered my decision, and every time I said ‘No,'” said Mango, who hopes to have a bionic hand fitted to an artificial hand to be able to use fingers.
ADVANCED BIONIC PROSTHETICS
In some ways, the amputees interviewed said, those who don’t return to the military find it even harder to make the transition to civilian life.
Leaving the Army means facing a new set of challenges, from getting around town or housing to finding work and dealing with civilians who don’t always know how to behave when they come into contact with amputees .
The government provides high-quality prosthetics and rehabilitation treatment to those who lose limbs in combat. War amputees also receive payouts that vary depending on the severity of their injuries. Funds are available for the maintenance of artificial limbs, and individuals can raise funds privately or through charities for advanced prosthetics such as bionic hands.
Nayyem, from soldiers’ rights group Pryncyp, said the government was not doing enough to help amputees find jobs and that existing initiatives were focused on major cities.
“I mean, the state made it a priority to send you to your death, but didn’t make it a priority to help you recover when you were injured,” he said. “All the wounded feel this.”
He added that the number of people directly or indirectly affected by amputations will only continue to rise as the war continues with no end in sight.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs, which is responsible for amputees, did not respond to criticism that it was not doing enough to support amputees, particularly in the longer term.
Oleksandr Revtiukh lost his left arm and most of his left leg in multiple mine explosions while fighting Russian forces during last summer’s counteroffensive in the south, making a return to combat virtually impossible. See photo essay “Wider Image”:
While the trauma of war remains, the 33-year-old is focused on his future outside of the military. The former electronics technician, who reported to fight months after the Russian invasion in February 2022, wants to build a social media profile as a motivational boxing trainer for fellow amputees.
“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes,” he said. “Look for a way out, there is a way through the thorns to the stars. That’s my motto.”