{"id":69320,"date":"2025-02-24T15:44:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/02\/24\/back-to-war-wounded-ukrainians-return-to-battle-after-amputation\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:08:14","slug":"back-to-war-wounded-ukrainians-return-to-battle-after-amputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2025\/02\/24\/back-to-war-wounded-ukrainians-return-to-battle-after-amputation\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to war: Wounded Ukrainians return to battle after amputation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DONETSK REGION, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 The Ukrainian intelligence soldier doesn\u2019t know how long his clinical death lasted after an explosive detonated beneath him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Andrii Rubliuk remembers is overwhelming cold, darkness and fear. When he regained consciousness in his shattered body \u2014 missing both arms and his left leg \u2014 excruciating pain engulfed him, and hallucinations clouded his mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an experience you wouldn\u2019t wish on anyone,\u201d the now 38-year-old says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, Rubliuk is again dressed in military fatigues, his missing limbs replaced by prosthetics \u2014 hooks in place of fingers, one leg firmly planted on an artificial limb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the moment of the explosion, Rubliuk knew his life had changed forever. But one thing was certain \u2014 he vowed to return to the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFighting with arms and legs is something anyone can do. Fighting without them \u2014 that\u2019s a challenge,\u201d he says. \u201cBut only those who take on challenges and fight through them are truly alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Ukrainian brigades have at least one, and often several, amputee soldiers still on active duty<\/a> \u2014 men who returned to combat<\/a> out of a sense of duty amid the grim outlook<\/a> for their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are among Ukraine\u2019s 380,000 war wounded, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>. Some 46,000 soldiers have been killed during the three-year war, and tens of thousands are missing and in captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the front line Russia is expending huge amounts of weaponry a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Serhii Pozniak, a sniper unit commander with the 27th national guard brigade, speaks to soldiers during training near Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 17, 2025. (Evgeniy Maloletka\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

nd human life to make small but steady territorial gains<\/a> to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile Ukraine, outnumbered and outgunned, faces challenges not only on the battlefield but also in diplomacy<\/a>, as its once strongest ally<\/a> \u2014 the U.S.\u2014 enters talks with Russia<\/a>, raising fears that Ukraine and its European partners will be sidelined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is this dire situation that has driven wounded soldiers back to the front, where little has changed since they first left their civilian lives to defend their families from an invading neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For them, lying in a hospital bed was unbearable compared to standing alongside their brothers-in-arms to defend Ukraine. But they all agree on one thing \u2014 when the war ends, they won\u2019t spend another day in uniform; joining the army was never their first choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubliuk rejoined the special forces last spring as a senior sergeant in the Artan intelligence unit, training new soldiers and monitoring enemy drones. His rehabilitation began in late 2022, but he believes it never truly ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery new day is part of my rehabilitation,\u201d he says. His new body, he adds, is a balance between self-acceptance and continuous recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A comrade who was with Rubliuk when the explosion happened and suffered minor injuries remembers the moment vividly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought he was dead,\u201d said the soldier, who did not give his name in compliance with special forces rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Leonid Lobchuk, a soldier with Ukraine’s 127th brigade who lost a leg in combat in eastern Ukraine in 2015, walks near his self-propelled howitzer in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Feb. 10, 2025. (Evgeniy Maloletka\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At that moment, Rubliuk\u2019s life hung in the balance. He was transported to a nearby hospital, suffered cardiac arrest and eventually was resuscitated, said Dr. Anton Yakovenko, a military surgeon who treated him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After months in hospital wards and rehabilitation centers in Philadelphia and Florida, Rubliuk has returned to take on a role near the front line where, like others who have done so, his knowledge and experience are the greatest weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in uniform like \u2018returning home\u2019<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maksym Vysotskyi had just completed a drone mission in November 2023, when he took a detour after heavy rains turned the battlefield into a swamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explosion when he stepped on a land mine was instantaneous. When he looked down at his left leg, all he saw was bone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI quickly accepted the fact that my leg was gone. What\u2019s the point of mourning? Crying and worrying won\u2019t bring it back,\u201d the 42-year-old says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By May, he was back in uniform, describing the feeling as \u201creturning home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need to come out of this not as someone broken by the war and written off, but as someone they tried to break, but couldn\u2019t,\u201d he says. \u201cYou came back, proved you could still do something, and you\u2019ll step away only when you decide to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Maksym Vysotskyi, a drone unit commander with Ukraine’s 82nd assault brigade, sits on a sofa near the front line in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Feb. 2, 2025. (Evgeniy Maloletka\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vysotskyi now commands a team operating explosives-laden drones on nighttime missions. He assesses risk and makes strategic decisions but rarely goes on combat missions. Despite his injury, he has never regretted enlisting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone must walk their own path, and there will be challenges along the way. You can try to escape your fate, but it will always catch up with you,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I never had regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A combat medic who became a war psychologist<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Two and a half years ago, when Capt. Oleksandr Puzikov called his wife to tell her his left arm had been severed, she thought he was joking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will never forget that day,\u201d says Iryna Puzikova, her voice trembling. \u201cWhen I walked into the ICU, his first words were, \u2018You won\u2019t leave me, right?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stayed by his side, traveling from hospital to hospital as he recovered and learned to live with a full-arm amputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he decided to return to the military, she wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never doubted for a moment that it could be any different,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before his injury, Puzikov, now 40, was a combat medic. After returning to service, he retrained as a psychologist, helping soldiers cope with the mental toll of three years of war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as the war continues, I won\u2019t leave \u2014 I\u2019ll help in any way I can,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, his own struggle continues. He suffers from phantom limb pain. It feels as if his missing hand is clenched in a fist, the pain so sharp it cuts like a knife. He hopes another surgery might finally relieve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A proper prosthetic remains out of reach due to bureaucratic delays and poor-quality options. Like many other amputees struggling to find a good arm prosthesis, he continues his military duties without one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life after war<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After he lost his right arm in battle, Oleksandr Zhalinskyi transitioned from an infantry soldier to a navigator-driver and chose not to use a prosthetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only good for fishing,\u201d jokes the 34-year-old of a hobby he still enjoys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his current role, he evaluates missions and finds the safest evacuation routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt first, I did not like this job. When I returned to service, I was ready to go back to the infantry,\u201d Zhalinskyi says. \u201cBut over time, I accepted this new role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A sticker of a wheelchair-bound soldier holding a rifle on the windshield during a drive in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Feb. 3, 2025. (Evgeniy Maloletka\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When an artillery strike hit his position in the fall of 2023, severing his arm, the pain was unbearable. He pushed himself up, scanning for comrades; he was the only one who survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He tried three times to tighten a tourniquet, but it wouldn\u2019t hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With communications destroyed and no way to call for help, he had only one option \u2014 move toward the evacuation point, forcing himself to stay conscious with every step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt felt like I was walking forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark thoughts crept in, but he reminded himself of his five godchildren \u2014 he had to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soldiers from a neighboring unit spotted him, stabilized him, and got him to safety. From that moment, there was no doubt \u2014 once he recovered, he would return to the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once he sheds his uniform, he has a plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the invasion, he dreamed of opening a pub in his hometown. That dream remains \u2014 except he\u2019s changed its name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, he plans to call it Amputated Conscience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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