Donetsk region, Ukraine (AP) – The Ukrainian intelligence soldier does not know how long his clinical death lasted after an explosive that was exploded among him.
The only thing that Andrii Ruzliuk remembers is overwhelming cold, darkness and fear. When he regained consciousness in his shattered body – both arms and his left leg missed – flooded him, and Hallucinations argued him.
“It is an experience that you wouldn't want anyone,” says the now 38-year-old.
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Two years later, Ruzliuk was again dressed in military fatigue, his missing limbs have been replaced by prostheses – hooks instead of fingers, one leg firmly planted on an artificial limb.
From the moment of the explosion, Rubluuk knew that his life had changed forever. But one thing was certain – he promised to return to the battlefield.
“Fighting with arms and legs is something that everyone can do. Fighting without them – that's a challenge, “he says. “But only those who take challenges and fight them through it really live.”
Many Ukrainian brigades still have at least one, and often different amputated soldiers in active service – men who returned to combat from a sense of duty in the midst of the grim prospects for their country.
They belong to the 380,000 war injured in Ukraine, according to President Volodyymyr Zenskyy. About 46,000 soldiers were killed during the three -year war, and tens of thousands are missing and in captivity.
On the front line, Russia spends huge amounts of weapons and human life to make small but steady territorial profit to the almost one fifth of Ukraine that controls it. In the meantime, Ukraine, in the minority and surpassed, is not only for challenges on the battlefield, but also in diplomacy, as the once strongest ally – the US – enters conversations with Russia, so that the fear is generated that Ukraine and his European partners will side side are set aside.
It is this terrible situation that has brought back wounded soldiers, where little has changed since they first left their civil life to defend their families against an invading neighbor.
For them, lying in a hospital bed was unbearable compared to standing next to their brothers to defend Ukraine. But they all agree on one thing about it – when the war ends, they will not spend another day in uniform; Participating in the army was never their first choice.
Razliuk joined the Special Forces as a senior sergeant in the Artan Intelligence Unit, training new soldiers and guarding enemy drones last spring. His rehabilitation started at the end of 2022, but he believes it never really ends.
“Every new day is part of my rehabilitation,” he says. His new body, he adds, is a balance between self -acceptance and continuous recovery.
A comrade that was at Rubluk when the explosion took place and suffered slight injuries, remembers the moment lively. “I thought he was dead,” said the soldier who did not give his name in accordance with the rules of special forces.
At that moment the life of Ruzliuk was in the balance. He was transported to a nearby hospital, suffered from a cardiac arrest and was eventually resuscitated, Dr. Anton Yakovenko, a military surgeon who treated him.
After months in hospital departments and rehabilitation centers in Philadelphia and Florida, Rubluuk has returned to play a role in the neighborhood of the front line where, like others who have done this, his knowledge and experience are the greatest weapon.
Being back in uniform is like 'coming home home'
Maksym Vysotskyi had just completed a drone mission in November 2023 when he took a detour after heavy rainfall turned the battlefield into a swamp and stepped on a land mine.
The explosion was immediately. When he looked at his left leg, he only saw blunt.
“I quickly accepted the fact that my leg had disappeared. What is the use of mourning? Crying and worries don't make it back, “says the 42-year-old.
By May he was back in uniform and described the feeling as 'coming home'.
“You shouldn't come out of this, not if someone broken by the war and written off, but if someone trying to break them, but couldn't,” he says. “You came back. I am alone if you decide.”
Vysotskyi now recommends a team with explosives with loaded drones on nightly missions. He assesses risks and makes strategic decisions, but rarely goes fighting missions. Despite his injury, he never regretted service.
“Everyone has to walk on their own path and there will be challenges along the way. You can try to escape your fate, but it will always catch up, “he says. “That's why I never regretted.”
A combat media that became a war psychologist
Two and a half years ago, then Capt. Oleksandr Puzikov called his wife to tell her that his left arm had been broken, she thought he was joking.
“I will never forget that day,” says Iryna Puzikova, her voice is vibrating. “When I walked into the IC, his first words were:” You won't leave me, right? “”
She stayed by his side, traveled from hospital to hospital when he recovered and learned to live with a full-arm amputation.
When he decided to return to the army, she was not surprised. “I never doubted that it could be different,” she says.
For his injury, Puzikov, now 40, was a combat media. After his return, he took back as a psychologist and helped soldiers to deal with the mental toll of three years of war.
“As long as the war goes on, I will not leave – I will help in every way I can,” he says.
Yet his own fight continues. He suffers from phantom limbs pain. It feels like his missing hand is clamped in a fist, the pain is as sharp it cuts like a knife. He hopes that another operation could finally relieve it.
A good prosthesis remains out of reach due to bureaucratic delays and options for poor quality. Just like many other amputants who have difficulty finding a good arm prosthesis, he puts his military duties without a.
Life after war
After he had lost his right arm in battle, Oleksandr Zhalinskyi switched from an infantry soldier to a navigator driver and chose not to use prosthetic.
“It's just good to fish,” jokes the 34-year-old of a hobby that he still likes.
In his current role, he evaluates missions and finds the safest evacuation routes.
“In the beginning I didn't like this job. When I started working again, I was ready to go back to the infantry, “says Zhalinskyi. “But over time I accepted this new role.”
When an artillery strike reached its position in the fall of 2023, cut off his arm, the pain was unbearable. He pushed himself up, scanning on comrades; He was the only one who survived.
He tried three times to sharpen a tourniquet, but it would not hold. With communication destroyed and not a way to call for help, he only had one option – go to the evacuation point, so that he would stay aware of every step.
“It felt like I was walking forever.”
Dark thoughts crawled in, but he reminded himself of his five godchildren – he had to survive. Soldiers of an adjacent unity saw him, stabilized him and brought him to safety. From that moment there was no doubt – as soon as he recovered, he would return to the fight.
But once he throw out his uniform, he has a plan. Before the invasion, he dreamed of opening a pub in his hometown. That dream remains – except that he has changed his name.
Now he plans to call the amputated conscience.
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Associated Press journalist Volodymyr Yurchuk has contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine.
