Transformed but unbroken: how a Ukrainian veteran copes with one leg through grit and adaptability

A strong, blond bearded man with a tattooed trident on his chest squats, jumps rope, boxes, and stands on a ball. And all this on one leg. He lost the other one while storming enemy positions.

A video of Lieutenant Vasyl Hrytsenko, captioned with his call sign Chuchupak, went viral a few weeks ago. His perseverance and love of life makes one smile, motivates, and invigorates. Hundreds of grateful commenters wrote to him.

Now the 29-year-old man is undergoing rehabilitation in one of the centers of Lviv Oblast.

Call sign “Chuchupak” stuck after Kholodnyi Yar

"I don't ask anyone to film me for Instagram on purpose: I'm very cautious about social media. But it just so happens that someone films my training. So I started posting videos because I have time now and people like them. Then my friends repost them, and they just went viral," Vasyl says over the phone. “It's nice to have such support. Many people are motivated by the video: they write that they got off their butts and started working out themselves."

Vasyl has been involved in sports all his life: swimming, Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, and in recent years boxing.

"I was a trained person, I was used to exertion, I jumped rope. My muscles remembered it right away. If you work hard, you will get results. My young age, my motivation to stand on both feet, my background – all of this matters and works for me."

He is one of the founders of the youth patriotic movement Honor. Its members took part in meetings against illegal developers, against Viktor Medvedchuk's activities, in the demolition of Soviet communist monuments, etc. At the same time, they were preparing for the full-scale war. They were trained by acquaintances among service members.

"We have never sat still and have been able to do things that average Ukrainians cannot do. We decided that while the Anti-Terrorist Operation was not in its active phase, we would not join the fight, but would instead launch Honor's activities in Kyiv. We will fight against pro-Russian forces. But as soon as the war starts, we will drop everything and set off immediately," the soldier explains his position.

I ask him where he got his call sign from.

"The boys called me ‘Cossack’ for a long time. In my youth, my friends and I often discussed the topic of Kholodnyi Yar, and at literary evenings we read the book Kholodnyi Yar (a novel by Ukrainian writer Yuriy Horlis-Horsky -ed.). I had read it personally three times by that time. And there is a Chuchupak family there: the famous otaman Vasyl Chuchupak, who died at the age of 25 in a battle with the Bolsheviks 100 years ago. That's how the nickname stuck to me. And during the war it became my call sign," says the fighter.

Da Vinci had no fear

Vasyl is from the village of Ivankiv in Kyiv Oblast. He left his wife and 3-year-old son a few days before the full-scale invasion: he felt that the all-out war would start any day now. His parents stayed in the village.

Three hours after the invasion, the enemy had already entered Ivankiv. A family friend was killed when he was taking his dog to the vet. The occupation troops thought he was driving too fast and shot at the car. Vasyl's parents remained unharmed, although a couple of bullets did hit their house.

Many of his friends were hunted down: they were hiding in nearby villages because they did not have time to take up arms. Some were killed.

On February 24, Chuchupak met with his friends in Kyiv at a pre-determined location. They already had equipment and knew where to get weapons. First, they defended the government quarter in the capital. Then they stormed villages in Kyiv Oblast.

When the adversary retreated from the north, they chased them to Sumy Oblast, capturing military equipment there. All of this was as part of the Honor volunteer unit. But the time came to make up their minds: the guys wanted to mobilize and fight in one of the units of the Armed Forces or Alpha (a special unit of the Security Service of Ukraine).

The personality of the commander played a key role in the decision. And they chose Dmytro Kotsiubaylo, “Da Vinci”.

"Five of us went to meet him. There were 50 to 100 of us [in the unit]. His assault battalion, Da Vinci's Wolves, was just joining the ranks of the Special Operations Forces. We sat down with him and discussed all the details. We immediately took a liking to him. We agreed that we would serve under him," Chuchupak recalls meeting Kotsiubaylo.

"I've heard a lot about him. He is a very strong man. He has been at the front all the years of the war. And we realized that we would go far with him. We stayed and immediately started performing combat missions.

I can call Da Vinci my friend. When I had even minor injuries, he called me almost every day to ask how I was feeling. Da Vinci was the kind of person who really cared about every soldier in his battalion. And there could be up to 700 of them.

When he sent someone on a mission and did not go himself, he would get very worried. As soon as he went with us, he immediately came to life, and felt better. There was no fear in him. That's how I can describe the commander. And when he died, it was a big blow to me. I did not know that he meant so much to me, that this person was so valuable, until I lost him," he concludes.

"For me, losing a friend is like cutting off an arm or a leg"

Vasyl recalls his losses: "I thought about each of my friends I lost that we could not be killed, that we were immortal. But war is a thing that nullifies your views. For me, losing a friend is like cutting off an arm or a leg. I often write posts about the dead, but not all of them, although I remember everyone. There were a lot of losses, but we knew immediately what we were doing, why we were doing it, where we were going, and what could happen.

Every man simply has no choice but to take up arms and go to defend his country. Otherwise, the enemy will come and impose its world. I would not like that very much. I have my own. I want my son to grow up and learn from the principles that are important to me, that I grew up with.

I am fighting for justice, for freedom of choice. We have this in our country, give or take. In Russia, this is impossible. I am fighting for my language, my culture, my identity, my dignity. It is better to die than to lose all of this. And of course, I am guided by my inner guidance that this is my country. I want it to exist, I want its people to exist. My people, our people."

As part of the Da Vinci Battalion, Vasyl fought in a reconnaissance platoon. Together with his comrades, he held the defense, reconnoitered or stormed about 30 settlements. Among them: Bakhmut, Lysychansk, Balakliya, Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi, Lyman.

"I have become even stronger in spirit and body than I was before. Let me explain with an example: while I used to think about where to lie down so it’s nice and cozy, now I can lie down on the road, on the asphalt. And even fall asleep. War makes a person morally unbreakable, more resistant to stress, more patient, more hardened. And when I come home and my wife tells me about household problems, it seems I can solve them with a wave of my hand."

Russians 15 meters away

On Vasyl's social media, there is a video of him being evacuated after being wounded: covered in blood, pale and exhausted. I wonder who would be filming at such a time.

"The soldiers have a small camera attached to their helmets, and it almost always films the entire battle. And my friend wrote to me after he was wounded: ‘I'm sorry, bro, that I filmed this, but here's a video for you’," the veteran replies.

He recalls his injury: "It was near Kupyansk in August. The enemy had taken several kilometers of our land, and we were sent to take back ours. During the assault, a battle broke out in which two commanders were suddenly killed, so I, the squad leader, took charge of the entire group.

The battle turned into close infantry combat, sometimes we were 15 meters away from the Russians. We exchanged fire, some of our men were killed and some were seriously wounded. I had contact with an enemy machine gunner: we were shooting at each other. Several bullets hit my machine gun. I was trying to repair it, to understand what was wrong with it, when a bullet hit my thigh. I fumbled with the weapon for a few minutes, then looked at my leg and saw everything was soaked in blood. I realized I had to crawl back."

As Vasyl crawled along, bullets continued to pierce his backpack. He realized that the enemy was after him.

"He failed to hit the target. War is generally a matter of luck: you can be lucky or not," the soldier recalls that he rolled over on his stomach, dropped his backpack, and crawled to cover. He applied a tourniquet, cut his pants with scissors, and applied another one. The bleeding stopped.

He was evacuated through such a dense forest that two people could not squeeze through. And the enemy was catching up. Chuchupak lost 1.5 liters of blood, so the evacuation was a delirious experience.

"The guys were dragging me one by one, periodically taking up the defense and shooting back. That's why the evacuation lasted 3.5 hours. My body became infected, my kidneys stopped working. I had to have my leg amputated. This is the so-called ‘tourniquet syndrome’, when the tourniquet on the limb lasts longer than two hours," he says.

After several hospitals, the fighter ended up in a Kyiv military hospital, where he underwent amputation.

"I woke up from anesthesia and did not know 100% whether I had lost my leg or not. I couldn't even lift my head to look. My sense of consciousness felt disembodied. But I could feel my leg, because there is such a thing as phantom pain. Three hours later I came to my senses and realized that my leg was gone. It is unpleasant, it is bitter, but it does not break you. Then I thought: I'll get an iron one. So I calmed down," Vasyl recalls.

Signed Cristiano Ronaldo shirt was sold to fund his treatment

"My wife came (after the surgery - ed.): 'Dude, you're going to be fine'. But whenever she went out – my mom told me about it – she was crying. It was hard for Katia, but she didn't show it. On the contrary, she kept repeating: ‘You're strong, you can do it, I believe in you’.

My son was a little scared, so I sat him on my lap: ‘Son, it doesn't hurt, you don't have to be afraid’. The next day I was home, and he was jumping around the house with me on one leg. He did all his work on one leg."

A man on a prosthesis read about Chuchupak on social media and responded: I want to congratulate him.

"It was the first time I saw a man without a leg, but he came to me and was very confident. And I realized it was possible. As for training, I know for sure that my friends who died in this battle, who were ready to give their lives for me and I was for them, would have done more than I did in my situation. Therefore, I have no right to lose heart. I can only move forward."

Ukrainian boxing coach Yehor Holub organized an auction for Vasyl Hrytsenko's treatment. Football star Cristiano Ronaldo's shirt with his autograph was on sale. Boxer Oleksandr Usyk wanted to buy it for a million hryvnias ($27,408), but he was outbid. The Portuguese star’s shirt went under the hammer for 1,050,000 hryvnias ($28,778).

Soon the soldier will receive prosthetics.

"I trust our specialists, they are genuine and professional. The guys who came back from America say that Ukraine has the best prosthetics and treatment. Our rehabilitators like my enthusiasm, and I like their qualification. So we work in tandem."

I want to take my son by the hand and walk up the highest stairs

"During the war, I think it's wrong to make global plans, because anything can happen. The first priority for me is to get back on my two feet. I had a dream to take my son in my arms again when I got back on my feet. But somehow I coped with this task a little faster. In two weeks. I even managed to throw him upward. Next, I want to take him by the hand and walk up the highest stairs.

In the long run, I would like to be useful for my country, and for my friends. To return and perform tasks that will be useful for the war and for Ukraine. I am a lieutenant in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I can be at the headquarters, command a battle, or be an instructor. Honestly, I haven't thought about it yet, but I think there is a place for me."