More and more Ukrainian soldiers like him are losing limbs in the war
Valeriy Kucherenko is a man who was awarded the title “Hero of Ukraine,” but his current battle is learning how to eat and use the bathroom alone.
The burly 30-year-old was seriously injured in October and is now a double amputee with two prosthetic legs.
More and more Ukrainian soldiers like him are losing limbs in the war, now in its third year, and are being forced to adapt to life in a country with few facilities for people with disabilities.
“I have new arms and I need to get used to it. You have to realize that this is the rest of your life. This is your whole future,” Kucherenko, who rolled up his uniform sleeves, told AFP.
The Protez Foundation, an American non-profit organization, installed a bionic prosthetic leg for Kucherenko after a fundraising event.
Made by a Ukrainian startup called Esper, they have rechargeable batteries and operate via muscles in the residual limb.
Due to the looseness of the prosthesis, Kucherenko went to the Protez Foundation Kiev Clinic to have it adjusted.
Jim Henrichsen, the American expert who fitted his arm, explained that this was a normal phenomenon due to a loss of muscle mass.
Kucherenko served in the army from 2015 to 2017 and re-enlisted in 2022 when Russia invaded.
As a junior sergeant, he was wounded while leading an attack on Russian positions in the eastern Luhansk region.
Grenade shrapnel riddled his arms, legs and eyes, one of which could now see only light and darkness.
Kucherenko was awarded Ukraine’s highest honor: the Hero of Ukraine Medal.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told him in hospital: “You are a hero. No one in Ukraine forgets such a hero.”
– ‘learning curve’ –
Kucherenko spoke openly about his difficulties.
After getting his new arm, “the first thing I wanted to do was go to the toilet independently because that’s a big problem for me,” he told AFP.
“That’s one of the greatest joys.”
But his wife, Veronika, 25, said it was still a work in progress.
With the prosthetic, “it’s easier, he can feed himself,” she said.
But the most difficult thing is “going to the toilet, he can’t walk on his own.”
The couple have daughters aged seven and two.
Kucherenko tested his bionic hand and raised a bottle of water to his mouth. It slipped and Veronica caught it.
On the next try, his fingers gripped the bottle so hard that it crumpled.
Veronica grinned. She said that’s why he was so afraid of peeing himself.
“He needs more time, he needs to study, train. Then the results will come,” she said.
Prosthetic limbs bring “opportunities” to amputees, said a poster from the Protez Foundation, which has 1,600 soldiers on the waiting list.
“It’s a dream,” said one soldier who was being fitted for a prosthetic leg.
The Soldiers “are in good shape, they’re strong … and they make me look good because they’re really sharp,” Henriksen said.
“Valery was like, ‘Let’s go!'” he said of Kucherenko.
But experts added that many may not be aware of the difficulties ahead.
“I don’t know if they necessarily realize this: the use of the (prosthetic) hand, how much work it takes to get comfortable with it. It’s just a learning curve, you know.”
In central Kiev, Kucherenko’s black and silver hands attracted curious glances.
“Most people who meet someone like me are understanding and supportive … but there are a lot of people who don’t understand what it is,” he said.
Until recently, he was in a wheelchair and found the city “not adaptable at all.”
– ‘I can do it’ –
Panoramic windows at the Protez Foundation clinic allow passers-by to see amputees.
CEO Yury Aroshidze said this was intentional because wounded soldiers “are double heroes.”
“I fully support it. Ukrainians and residents of Kiev must see and understand the consequences of war,” Kucherenko said.
As a hero of Ukraine, Kucherenko should have been given an apartment, but he now lives in a small rented apartment in the southern city of Kiev’s Becherkoviy.
AFP reporters spent a day with the family.
In the morning, his wife helps him put on sweatpants and straps on his prosthetic leg.
For everyday tasks, Kucherenko prefers to use a mechanical prosthesis with a hook to hold a cup of tea or a cigarette.
At breakfast, his eldest daughter Valeria poured him milk and fed him with a fork.
Later, when he went out, Kucherenko put on a bionic arm.
He picked up Valeria from school and she walked beside him holding his hook.
Kucherenko plans to return as a military instructor.
“I couldn’t fight, but I was still able to help the armed forces,” he said.
He recently visited his unit “to show them that I’m here, I’m alive. I can do this.”
He even fired an assault rifle.
“He would go back. He lived for this,” Veronica said.
“But first he needs to learn how to go to the toilet on his own.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
