He lost his leg back in 2014: the story of a veteran who led soldiers on prostheses to the Carpathians to raise funds for the Armed Forces
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29-year-old Oleksandr Shvetsov received the specialty of a scout even before the invasion of the Russians in the east of Ukraine. He did not plan to fight, but circumstances brought him to the front in April 2014.
Alexander lost his left leg during several months of service as a result of enemy shelling, and the doctors fought for a long time for his right. He refused a prosthesis for a year and a half, but later discovered his formula for success in “kinship” with a metal limb. The man understood. that can travel a lot and not interfere with the discomfort of the prosthesis.
Oleksandr also used his endurance to attract Ukrainians to meetings for the needs of the military – he went from Odessa to the Carpathians, from Zhytomyr to Kyiv. However, the most famous is his “We Are Not Tired” hike along the Chornohoris ridge together with four veterans on prostheses.
“UP.Zhyttia” asked Oleksandr Shvetsov about his path, recovery, adaptation of other veterans and organized the largest hike through the Carpathians on prosthetics.
| Photo from a hike in the Carpathians |
“I had no moral right to refuse”
Until 2014, Oleksandr worked as a sales consultant in one of the Zhytomyr companies. He lived in a small family house, which at some point he decided to sell.
Documents from the Military Commissariat had to be submitted to process documents for the sale of real estate. A few years before that, Oleksandr completed his military service and earned the military specialty “Commander of the intelligence unit”.
“The commissar who issued me a certificate said that guys with my military specialty are very needed in the east. Perhaps he told everyone this and thus “invited” those willing to serve. I hesitated.
Other guys were standing next to me. And he asks one – are you going? He says – I’m going, the second also agrees. When it was my turn, I had no moral right to refuse“, Oleksandr recalls.
On March 30, 2014, he received a summons and had to appear at the military unit. He was assigned to the 30th separate mechanized brigade.
“For two weeks, we were trained in the Mykolaiv region to throw combat grenades, to shoot from all types of rifle and tracked equipment. It was a thorough training. The boys and I joked that we would be made into special forces“, says the man.
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| Oleksandr’s photo from service in Luhansk region |
At the end of April, Oleksandr and his brothers were sent to ATO in Luhansk region.
“We were standing under the city of Shchastya, and “hail” was already falling near us. The command decided that it was necessary to shoot from this position and send it to another location. That’s how we ended up in Veseliya Gora. It was not zero, we called it a minus “– says the veteran.
The soldiers at the new location did not even have time to dig in – the Ukrainian soldiers were pushed by enemy equipment and artillery. On the calendar was the beginning of July 2014.
“About an hour and a half after the start of the fight, something flew to my right, but for some reason the left side was injured“, says Oleksandr Shvetsov.
Comrades dragged the wounded man to evacuation, and then he was taken to a Kharkiv hospital by helicopter.
Read also: “Carry my legs back.” How a 24-year-old military man with a triple amputee learns to live
“The prosthesis stood in the bathroom for a year and a half”
A few weeks before, Oleksandr’s commander was also wounded, as a result of which he had to have his limb amputated. Therefore, the man was very afraid of losing his leg.
“At the hospital, a doctor came to me and examined my limbs and checked for sensitivity. He started poking my left leg with a sharp object and asked how I felt. I lied because I was afraid of amputation. Then the doctor asked me to turn away and continued to check for sensitivity, but I was you can see his movements reflected in the window.
Eventually he asked me to close my eyes and I had to admit that I couldn’t feel my leg. But he asked to save her“, the veteran recalls.
When Oleksandr recovered from anesthesia, the doctor told him that he had to amputate his limb.
“In his words, I lost a lot of blood during the operation because so many arteries were cut. So it was necessary to save a life, not a limb“, he says.
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| Alexander moved for a long time in a wheelchair or on crutches, ignoring the prosthesis |
Then the soldier was transferred to the Kyiv hospital, where they continued to save his right leg, because it was also at risk of amputation.
“Many people came to the hospital – both volunteers and simply caring Ukrainians. Someone brought fried potatoes or cutlets, and someone came morally to support and tell jokes. People pulled us out of the depression we were in then”– recalls Oleksandr.
When a prosthetist came to Shvetsov for the first time with a prosthesis, the wounded soldier psychologically refused to accept the new metal limb. It was a simple prosthetic tube.
“When I had a prosthesis made, it stood in my bathroom for a year and a half. I didn’t move on it at all. I had a walker and a car – it gave me some mobility.
Volunteers found out about me and began to ask about my walking on a prosthesis. I lied to them, as I did to a doctor before an amputation – I said that I was walking and everything was fine“, the former military man shares.
Adaptation for walking on a prosthesis
The volunteers did not believe Alexander and offered him to finally master a new limb. They sent him and 4 other boys with prostheses to the Walking School in Austria.
“I came there in a wheelchair. I was 29 years old, and I saw that grandparents in their 70s without legs were walking on prostheses. Then I firmly decided that I would no longer sit in a wheelchair“, the man recalls.
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| Oleksandr was actively involved in sports |
Oleksandr also learned various life hacks on how to learn to walk with a prosthesis. For example, one of the doctors advised to buy a treadmill.
“It would seem that what is a treadmill for a person without a leg for? But it turns out that it is a very necessary thing for rehabilitation. It has handrails and teaches not to sway while walking“, he explains.
After returning home, Oleksandr began to notice that his friends felt sad and guilty when talking to a veteran who had lost a limb. So he started making new acquaintances and going out of town more often to learn to walk.
“One day, the thought dawned on me that you can learn to walk abroad, exploring new countries and cities. I noticed that when I travel, I am distracted by what I see and do not focus on the discomfort of the prosthesis“, the veteran says.
Later, this discovery grew into the idea of the first tour for military amputees abroad. It was successfully implemented in 2019.
“I had a bus for 18 seats. I found someone who fueled our trip and helped us book accommodation in Europe. So I went to Lourdes together with my brothers and sisters. This is a town in France where the military gathers every year to pray for peace.
For several years, more than 500 soldiers with complex injuries have visited such “tours”. We rode quad bikes in the Sinai desert, climbed the Eiffel Tower with prostheses, hiked a volcano in Icelandx”, recalls Oleksandr.
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| Photo from Paris during one of the trips with veterans |
On February 24, he buried his brothers
The veteran says that he did not prepare for a full-scale invasion – he did not even refuel the car, despite the hype of the situation in the news.
When the Russians invaded Ukraine, Alexander was sleeping in his own bed and did not even hear the first explosions.
“When I saw the news, I first decided to go to the gas station. There was already a line. I got out of the car because I didn’t want to sit inside, and someone called me. It turned out that the man had a request for me – to bury his nephew, who died the day before , because all the soldiers were taken from the city and there was no one to even carry the coffin“, the veteran recalls.
A few days after the full-scale invasion, several more of Alexander’s brothers died. They were all buried on February 24 at the cemetery in Zhytomyr.
“I was impressed that many guys from the veteran movement returned to Ukraine, even from their earnings in Poland or Germany, to stand up for the defense of the state.
I was asked to stay and provide them with everything they needed. At the beginning of the invasion, when thermal imagers, drones and vehicles were in short supply, I got them all for the guys“, he says.
Read also: Battle for Ukraine through generations: the story of the Marmus family, which has been fighting for independence for almost a century
“I don’t consider myself a volunteer, but I don’t like to lose in life”
In the summer of 2022, the brothers asked Oleksandr to raise funds for a car to Belarus.
“I put up a post that the boys needed a car – they announced a collection. They collected 20 thousand hryvnias, published it a second time – about 7 thousand more, but I didn’t see the point of publishing it a third time.
I don’t consider myself a volunteer, but I don’t like to lose in life. What I have to do must be completed”– recalls the veteran.
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| Oleksandr during a hiking trip through Ukraine |
Oleksandr then remembered Mark from the “Laughter League”, who organized a collection in an ambulance. He walked from Odessa to the Carpathians to collect the required amount.
“At that time, I thought that I could cover no less distances than a person with two legs. I calculated that 800,000 hryvnias were needed to cover the toll on the car.
It was 800 km from Odesa to Yaremche, that is, 1 meter equaled 1 hryvnia. If I donated 1,000 hryvnias, my journey was shortened by 1 km. I hoped to attract as many people as possible who would shorten my path and help me buy a car.”he explains.
In almost 6 days of the campaign, Oleksandr collected 500,000. A plateau came – people lost interest and the collection stopped. But every day the man recorded a video and edited it at the end of the day.
“Somewhere on the 8th day, I met a priest who gave me a thousand hryvnias. I posted the video and while I was brushing my teeth, the jar was filled. I walked another 10 km for myself – several thousand hryvnias came into my account.
While I was getting home from Odessa – plus a million. The next morning – another million. In total, 7 million came out, which exceeded expectations!”, says the man.
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Trekking along the Chornohirsky ridge on prosthetics
In the spring of 2023, Alexander planned a trip to Iceland. He gathered a group of 5 boys with the same level of amputation (above the knee). The requirement was the presence of a foreign passport, disability group, and, of course, a prosthesis.
“I believe that people with the same level of amputation can teach each other. Because, for example, fighters with lower amputations or people without both legs have a different step pattern“, Oleksandr Shvetsov explains.
The group visited tourist places and little-known locations – mountains, volcanoes.
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| A group of veterans in Iceland |
A few weeks later, another group of wounded soldiers went to the mountains in Poland.
“In the process of walking, I decided that it is possible to combine the useful with the pleasant and walk long distances together with the boys. I offered them a charity hike along the Montenegrin ridge. Five of the two groups volunteered.
The idea was to collect a billion, but the Asylum Fund offered a more realistic collection of 10 million – 2 million for each participant’s division“, he says.
The campaign was called “We are not tired.” They decided to complicate the mountain hike on prostheses and make it as interactive as possible for donors. In addition to the equipment, each participant took 10 kilograms of sand in his backpack. They were supposed to drop 1 kilogram for every million collected.
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“In the first days, we had a lot of trouble with the weather – it was raining and it was slippery. When you walk on such terrain on a prosthesis. you need to constantly look at where to put the healthy leg and where the prosthesis. It’s like playing chess. And in addition to this, there is a 23 kg backpack on his shoulders.
The most vivid memory from the trip is when we got soaked to the bone and had to dry things over a stove in one tent. The boys chose which thing they needed the most – a sweater, socks or something else“, the veteran recalls with a smile.
Oleksandr said that they were joined by 10 other guys who helped carry water, provisions and the EcoFlow charging station. It was taken to power the electronic prostheses – 3 out of 5 needed recharging every night.
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Anatoliy Kirda’s electric prosthesis could not withstand the load and broke right in front of Hoverla.
The highest point of the Ukrainian Carpathians was conquered by 4 veterans – Oleksandr Shvetsov, Evgeny Smaga, Oleksiy Burlakov and Denys Sherengovskyi. At the top, the collection did not close – there were about 8 million in the account, but in a few weeks the money was collected and equipment was bought for the units in which the veterans served.
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| Veterans with prostheses on the Chornohirsky ridge |
Victoria Andreeva, UP. Life
Read also: “Amputation is definitely not a sentence.” The story of a Ukrainian veteran who completed a marathon on a prosthesis
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