Back to front wearing prosthetics: story of Ukrainian defender, 20, who lost his leg in combat

Yehor Oliinyk, 20, has been fighting wearing a prosthetic leg for over a year. The soldier lost his leg in the first year of the full-scale invasion.

Source: rehabilitation centre Nezlamni (Unbreakable)

"One can only envy his positive attitude and sense of humour," the rehabilitation centre Nezlamni (Unbreakable) described Yehor.

Yehor joined the army as soon as he came of age. A few weeks later, the full-scale invasion began.

Oliinyk was injured by a land mine in Donetsk Oblast in September 2022, and at the end of the same year, he was able to walk independently on a prosthesis and later came back to the front.

The soldier is currently defending Ukraine; he performs combat missions and takes part in assaults.

"It all started for me on 24 February two years ago at the training ground. The battalion commander rushed to us and said: 'War! Quickly get in the vehicles!'

We left for [the town of] Brovary [Kyiv Oblast]. I could not believe that war had started for a long time until I saw the Russians, and we started shooting," the defender says.

Yehor added that the war has taught him to value life "as it passes very quickly and goes by unnoticed".

"I realised that I shouldn't quarrel with my parents and friends because we may not have the chance to see each other and settle things," he says.

Yehor describes his life with prosthetics with a smile: "Before the injury, I was very agile, and now I am a bit slow, but it's okay. Firstly, I don’t get cold. Secondly, it saves socks. And if my foot gets wet, it's no big deal. It does not freeze – another advantage."

Background: Earlier, we reported that a Ukrainian soldier who had lost his right leg in the war received multiple severe injuries to the left lower body and had two strokes but managed to stand up on his left leg for the first time in 14 months.

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