The photo shows ten defenders of Ukraine. Due to their severe injuries, they are limitedly fit to perform combat missions. Therefore, the command of the military units sent them to serve in the Sambir RTCF and SP. There, they can feel that after losing their health, the state has not disassociated itself from them and that they are not perceived as “written off”.
These fighters have been in the hellish clashes near Bakhmut and beyond. They will long remember the horrific images of losing friends and destroyed towns and villages. These men can talk for hours about their experiences. But they did not lose heart and did not give up. And now they are happy that they can be useful to the state in the service of the CCC.
Ihor ZOBKIV, a former paratrooper with the Lviv 80th Air Assault Brigade, is originally from Odesa region and now lives in Boryslav. Ihor says he wants to be useful to Ukraine and demonstrates how well he has learnt to walk on prostheses and can even run. However, this is not suitable for the trenches, as healthy legs are needed there.
Since school, Ihor ZOBKIV wanted to be an army man. And he wanted to be a paratrooper, a representative of the elite branch of the army. His dream came true. The war took him along the scorched roads of the south. Their APC was hit by an enemy anti-tank mine. In a Voznesensk hospital, Ihor regained consciousness and realised that he had lost his left leg and his right was stiff. Later, he also lost it below the knee. In Odesa, his eyes were saved, but a shard remained in one of them. He can hardly see in that eye. Doctors performed more than twenty surgeries on the man’s face. In Lviv, they fitted him with perfect prostheses. The presidential award, the Order “For Courage” of the III degree, is very precious to the man.
Ivan Lesh served in the 24th Brigade named after King Danylo Halytskyi. He underwent nineteen surgeries due to his injuries, after which he became a second-grade invalid.
The same can be said about his fellow volunteer Mykhailo VANIVSKYI from the village of Babyna, Novokalynivka TG, whose cane is now his aid.
Mykhailo PAPISH is a resident of the neighbouring village of Luky, Rudkivska TG, who carried the wounded out of the trenches near Bakhmut and was pierced by enemy bullets himself.
Ivan Bai from the village of Zadnistriany. Oleh OVDIYUK from Mykolaiv fought with them in this heroic military unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the area of the Bakhmut frontline, he was contused, and an enemy piece of metal seriously injured his shoulder.
Roman HUSHCHYN, a fighter with the 80th Brigade, from Sambir, had his leg nerve severed by a bullet.
Volodymyr MYRDYCH, from the village of Ralivka, and the 47th Mechanised Brigade “Magura”, sustained explosive shrapnel wounds to his right arm and leg, a head injury and concussion at the front.
Mykhailo KLYMENKO, a sergeant with the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, also died. On 25 May, he celebrated his 51st birthday, and the day before, on 21 May, he came under enemy fire.
He was wounded in the lungs, stomach and legs as a “gift” from the Russians. Doctors removed seven shrapnel fragments from his body. The Minister of Defence of Ukraine awarded him the medal “For Wounding (Severe)”.
This list of full-time servicemen of the Sambir RTC and JV also includes Andriy Botsyk, a senior sergeant and combat medic of the Sambir military unit A-0807. He started defending Ukraine in 2020 in Luhansk and Donetsk regions. He received the medal “Combatant” and keeps a general’s certificate of merit.
Communicating with these veterans who continue to serve in the Sambir RTC and JV, you can hear a lot about the realities of the Russian-Ukrainian war. But the most important thing is to once again make sure that Ukrainians will definitely win.
📸Public relations service of the Lviv Regional Training and Communications Centre