With two new legs to stand on, Dymtro Krasnovskyi put all his effort into making a single step.
“The most difficult ever for me was to make that first step,” the 24-year-old, double-leg amputee recalled.
But walking is easier now than it was three months ago when he started his rehabilitation at Prosthetic and Orthotic Associates in Orlando. He’s one of five Ukrainian soldiers armed with prosthetics going through rehab thanks to the nonprofit organization Revived Soldiers Ukraine.
RSU sponsors Ukranian amputees at sites all over the country. The Orlando site specializes in leg amputees. Outside the country there are many more amputee soldiers waiting, hoping to get help, but as the line grows longer RSU is finding less money available to help them.
“The second month I really tried to engage all my muscles. All the training exercises I did helped me make the first step, and then the second was easier and then the third one was easier, and then so on. It got much easier,” Krasnovskyi said.
Still, it is difficult to learn to walk on different legs. He’s not sure when he’ll be done with rehab.
But Krasnovskyi has made remarkable progress. He said that six months ago when he was injured, he thought he'd never walk again.
Krasnovskyi was on the battlefield. He had served four years in the Ukrainian Army special forces. He and his fellow soldiers were given a task to attack enemy lines in the Kharkiv Region.
He sought cover in trenches. Gunfire and the shouts of men flooded his senses. He managed to run from one trench to another, avoiding the gunfire. He was wearing a GoPro camera. It captured the moment when a grenade landed near him. He’s relived that moment many times.
Shrapnel tore into his legs. His comrades tied tourniquets around them to stop the bleeding. It took seven hours before he could get medical attention. By then, his legs were in need of amputation. After that, there wasn’t much doctors could do for him.
“Just find yourself a good wheelchair,” he recalled one doctor telling him.
Luckily, he was put in touch with RSU. His complex injuries qualified him for the program, where he’s been learning to walk again.
The cost of an arm and a leg
Typically, it takes three months for an amputee to learn to walk again. But as in Krasnovskyi's case, sometimes it's more. And time is money. As the Ukraine-Russia war wages on, RSU is getting more injured soldiers, with more complex injuries, more double amputees, and less funding. Nearly all of the money to do this work comes from individual donors.
“Ukraine is no longer the first (story) on the news,” said RSU president Iryna Discipio. “People forget about the war and what is happening even though it's still very active. But it is every day Russians shell Ukrainian cities.”
It costs about $50,000 to outfit and rehabilitate one single amputee, according to RSU president Iryna Discipio. A double amputee costs $65,000.
Discipio said RSU received over a thousand requests for help last year but was financially able to help only 40 people.
An Associated Press report from September, the same month Krasnovskyi was injured, said more than 20,000 Ukrainians were living with missing limbs. Last month, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since 2022.
To make matters more difficult, Discipio believes the Israel-Hamas war has shifted most Americans’ attention away from Ukraine, meaning even less money for the amputees.
“The war in Israel, of course, it's up on the news, and everybody's like ‘oh, now we have to help these people,’” Discipio said. “Maybe the (Ukraine-Russia war news) got old. I don't know. When the war started, I don't know how but people found us. People just wanted to find anybody, any nonprofit that helped Ukraine.”
Discipio started RSU in 2014 not long after the Ukrainian Revolution. Through her connections with Ukrainian doctors, especially in East Ukraine, she was able to identify soldiers in need of help, and through crowd-sourcing was able to bring them to the U.S.
Discipio has been following up with old donors to try and rally more funds, including one donor who once gave $50,000. She says that person recently gave again.
Her hope is to continue keeping the Ukraine war effort on people’s minds through personal conversations, publishing soldiers’ progress on social media, and hosting events. That isn’t her only hope.
“I hope there's no future for this program,” she said. “I hope there are no people who need our help. Our goal is to get rid of people who need our help, but I know it's not realistic.”
Taking the gold
Twenty-year-old Dmytro Tereshchenko is a force to be reckoned with on one good foot.
He stood with his prosthetic leg in Prosthetic and Orthotic Associates in Orlando, holding seven gold medals. He recently cleaned up at the Warrior Games competition at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.
According to the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program, the games are a paralympic-style competitive event featuring sports adapted to the individual capabilities of wounded warrior athletes.
Tereshchenko won medals in basketball, swimming, rowing and rugby. His favorite medal was in swimming. He flew through the water in the 100-meter freestyle, winning gold.
He was back in Orlando in March a week later being fitted for a prosthetic leg – a socket was in need of replacing. RSU covered the $25,000 cost.
Tereshchemko was 19 working as a gunner in the Luhansk region of Ukraine and defending the city of Chernihiv when he was shot by Russians. The shooting left him with a very high amputation. In August he was fitted with a QUATTRO electric knee – a prosthetic brand he wouldn’t have been able to receive in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian war amputee is happy to be competing in sports, but he’s eager to go home.
“I want to continue on helping the army units as a volunteer and bring aid to the war zone,” he said. “We're all hoping for the peace but there’s a lot of civilians dying and losing homes.”
Fellow rehab soldier, Krasnovskyi doesn’t feel the same way. He misses his family but he has no interest in going home.
Krasnovskyi said feels he can do more good for his people here telling his story to encourage more American donations.
“Being here I will be able to bring awareness to the war in Ukraine, find more support, and especially help people like me, wounded soldiers who can come here and get prosthetic help here in the States because in Ukraine, unfortunately, people, especially with high amputations of limbs or arms, they can't get help,” he said.
Just seeing Krasnovskyi's face, you'd have no idea that he’s suffered such a huge injury. His smile beams a genuine radiance.
He really likes Florida. He likes the temperature. He enjoys the theme parks. He feels welcomed by the people.
And he can have a life here.
“Ukraine is not well designed for people in wheelchairs or disabled people. Unfortunately, there exists an accessibility problem, and it's much easier here to move around,” he said. “I think I did a lot for my country. I think I can help Ukraine more being here.”
