Oleksiy, 30, was shot directly in the leg by an enemy grenade launcher. Due to the heavy shelling, he could not be evacuated, so he lost his limb.
But the fighter did not allow himself to despair – he has already received a prosthesis and is learning to walk, and knows what else he can do for the Armed Forces.
Oleksiy Chevychko is from the city of Zaporizhzhia. He worked at a foundry there. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion in March 2022, he quit his job and joined the Armed Forces. First, he joined a volunteer unit. Then he joined the 128th separate territorial defence brigade.
He was seriously injured exactly two years into his service – in March 2024. It happened in the Donetsk region.
“I heard the exit, put my head down and saw a grenade launcher shell hit my foot. I immediately fell down, but I was not confused. I couldn’t get up. At that moment, I was thinking about one thing – I want to survive, because I have to see my wife. But if I survive, I will do all the things I have been putting off for so long,” Oleksiy shares his memories.
Due to the heavy shelling, the heavily wounded soldier could not be evacuated. The tourniquet stayed on Oleksiy’s left leg for a day and 6 hours. So when he finally got into the hands of doctors, they had no choice but to amputate the limb at a fairly high level.
The defender was treated in three medical facilities. The last one was the National Rehabilitation Centre UNBROKEN in Lviv. Oleksiy came here for rehabilitation and prosthetics.
“Sometimes I thought about bad things, but that was temporary. At one point, I realised that this is so cool! I’ll have an iron leg! And I’ll be able to return to a full life,” says the defender. He adds: the main thing is that he is alive.
Oleksiy has already received his iron leg at the UNBROKEN Centre and is learning to walk on it. To do this, he is constantly working with physical therapists. Together they work primarily on strengthening the muscles of the stump and trunk. They also pay great attention to the so-called stabiliser muscles of the surviving right leg.
The patient is already performing balance exercises and is gradually mastering the skills of walking on the prosthesis. Oleksiy is eager to return to his native Zaporizhzhia to see his friends and family. He will not return to the army with such a high level of amputation. However, he believes that he will be able to continue to be useful to the frontline. After completing his rehabilitation, Oleksiy plans to take up volunteering.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Lviv has become a humanitarian hub through which millions of Ukrainians have fled and are still fleeing the war. In April 2023, the National Rehabilitation Centre UNBROKEN was opened here – a unique place where adults and children affected by Russian aggression receive comprehensive professional medical care. This includes reconstructive surgery, orthopaedics and prosthetics. The injured are not only fitted with prostheses, but they are also manufactured here. The wounded also receive physical, psychological and psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery under the guidance of specialists. All assistance is provided free of charge.
The 1,000-square-metre international prosthetics and orthotics centre was opened on 10 May 2024 at the UNBROKEN centre with the support of the German government. The centre will be able to manufacture 1,200 prostheses a year, train future prosthetists and conduct research and development.