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Grievously wounded Ukrainian soldier gets second chance in US
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Grievously wounded Ukrainian soldier gets second chance in US

Just before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, nearly three years ago, 23-year-old Ukrainian army Lieutenant Myroslav Pylypchuk was preparing to become a father. Instead, he found himself confronting the invaders on the frontlines, where he repeatedly faced death, including a face-off with a Russian tank in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

During subsequent fighting in the Kharkiv region, he stepped on a Russian landmine. The explosion cost him his left leg.

Just four months later, he was conquering a mountain peak on crutches. Today, he’s a father of two young children, living in the U.S. state of Ohio, where he was given a new limb and a new lease on life.

In an interview with VOA’s Ukrainian Service, Pylypchuk shared the story of his close encounter with a tank, how a tourniquet from an American benefactor saved his life, and his journey to recovery.

‘This tank is already coming straight at me’

In the spring of 2022, Myroslav Pylypchuk found himself face-to-face with a Russian tank. The duel between the 23-year-old man from the western Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi and the enemy tank was captured on video by a Ukrainian drone operator.

“This tank is already coming straight at me, its gun is rising and aiming at me,” he told VOA. “I think to myself: either I shoot now, or it shoots first. I take the first shot, the grenade from the grenade launcher ricochets off the ground, flies up over the turret, and explodes. The tank stopped and fired exactly at the spot where I was. But all I got were shrapnel pieces that flew through these bushes and hit me.

“The tank drives into the ditch, turns its turret, and once again targets the spot where I was standing, as if I had really annoyed it, as if I had ruined its day. Then it turns the turret and fires again at the place where I had been. The shell landed where I was, but thank God I had already managed to run about 20 meters away, and the shrapnel from that shell just flew past me.”

Just two weeks before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Pylypchuk found out he was going to be a father. On Feb. 24, he packed his things and joined his military unit in Kyiv, where he was then living and stationed.

A graduate of the Lviv Academy of Ground Forces, Pylypchuk served in the Ukrainian army in the Donetsk region, and ended up commanding a company of 80 soldiers. By May 2022, his unit had taken the village of Tsyrkuny in Kharkiv region back from Russian forces.

During just a few months on the front lines, he nearly lost his life three times.

“Shrapnel in one case, a rocket in another, then the tank missed,” he recalled.

A gift from an American that saved his life

However, Lieutenant Pylypchuk’s luck ran out during the Kharkiv fighting, when he stepped on a landmine.

“I’m walking at one point, I hear an explosion and fall. I try to take a step with my left leg and fall again,” he told VOA. “I look at my leg — I was wearing new gear, light-colored — and I look at my leg, and it’s already completely red.”

The blast from the landmine also destroyed two of Pylypchuk’s first aid kits and all his medical supplies. He said it was like he’d been turned into a human sieve — even the scissors for cutting clothing were twisted and scattered in all directions.

However, he still had another tourniquet on him — a gift that Ron Jackson, an American volunteer who had been traveling to Ukraine for years to help its military, had given him just before the war started.

Myroslav Pylypchuk, right, is seen with American volunteer Ron Jackson, left, with Myroslav's wife and son in the background. (Courtesy - Myroslav Pylypchuk)


Myroslav Pylypchuk, right, is seen with American volunteer Ron Jackson, left, with Myroslav’s wife and son in the background. (Courtesy – Myroslav Pylypchuk)

Jackson’s tourniquet was applied around his chest, saving his life. But the landmine explosion had completely shattered the bone in Pylypchuk’s upper left leg.

The medics who treated Pylypchuk at the scene loaded him into the trunk of a Soviet-made Niva SUV for transport to a hospital in Kharkiv.

“The Niva pulls up, and I’m thinking, ‘Where am I supposed to sit?’, because there were two in the car already: one was driving, and the other was covering the window, just in case, God forbid, any sabotage groups showed up. And then they just threw me into the trunk like a sack of potatoes,” he recalled with a smile.

With every bump in the road, the adrenaline wore off, and the pain got worse:

“I felt like the donkey from Shrek, asking, ‘How much longer? When is it going to get better?’ They drove me around Kharkiv for about half an hour to forty minutes. I was holding on with every last bit of strength just to stay conscious. As soon as I saw the hospital doors open and that bright light, I closed my eyes. The doctors were shocked that I’d stayed conscious until the very last moment.”

Doctors fought for over six hours to save Pylypchuk’s life, and he was unconscious for three days. However, the shrapnel that entered his body had passed through the ground and trees, causing a blood infection — one so serious that his left leg had to be amputated.

Recovery in the US

Pylypchuk needed a prosthetic for his leg, but the waiting list in Ukraine was long, so he looked for other options. He called Jackson, the American whose tourniquet had saved his life, who introduced Pylypchuk to Ihor, a Ukrainian immigrant who knew a prosthetist in Ohio.

Thanks to Ihor, who became Pylypchuk’s sponsor during his move to Ohio, the prosthetic was fitted in the U.S. in October 2022. Pylypchuk also received help through individual donations and free consultations from the prosthetist. In just two weeks — an incredibly fast recovery — he was walking on his own.

“What motivated me was the desire to live, because, well, God didn’t give me a second chance for no reason — He gave me the opportunity to stay alive,” Pylypchuk told VOA.

More than two years after stepping on the landmine, Pylypchuk is still undergoing rehabilitation and preparing for additional surgeries. Now living in the U.S. temporarily thanks to Uniting for Ukraine, a special U.S. government parole program for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, he continues to raise funds for and send essential supplies to his fellow soldiers on Ukraine’s front lines.

Pylypchuk has a two-year-old son, Mark, and a daughter, Evelina, who was born in the United States. He hopes that by the time he fully recovers, the war in Ukraine will be over and he, his wife and two children can return home. He would like to pursue a career in information technology.

Myroslav Pylypchuk is pictured with his wife and son. (Courtesy - Myroslav Pylypchuk)


Myroslav Pylypchuk is pictured with his wife and son. (Courtesy – Myroslav Pylypchuk)

For now, he is focusing on his recovery and enjoying fatherhood.

“You only have one life, and you have to live it fully, without being afraid of not doing something. If you want to do something, you need to do it. And appreciate what you have. Above all — your life,” he said.

Source: voanews.com