“So what if my foot was torn off?” A fighter from Achilles battalion on why amputation did not become a reason to demobilize
“Now, after the adoption of the new law on mobilization, I have to pass the military medical commission again with my group II disability. I'm not in a hurry to go there, because I'm still in danger of being transferred to the reserve. And what will I do then? The Russians are coming, and I'm in the reserve!? I have no plans for such a life, I am planning to be on the front line as long as I am at least a little effective here,” says Hulk, a fighter with the Achilles Strike UAVs Battalion, part of the 92nd Brigade.
In October 2022, a mine explosion blew off his right foot. Then he got prosthetics, received a “limited fitness” status from the military medical commission and returned to his unit.
“I asked the commander: if he feels that I have become a burden to my comrades and the cause, he should tell me about it immediately. I've been fighting with a prosthesis for almost a year now, and my commander, thank God, hasn’t told me anything. A person with an artificial limb can sometimes perform more functions than someone on his own two legs, if they have the desire and willpower,” Volodymyr says.
I am in Kyiv, he is somewhere between Kostiantynivka and Chasiv Yar. We don't turn on the video so as not to worsen the sound. We are talking blindly. I rustle the chocolate wrapper quietly and nibble on the bar.
“Maia, wait, I want some chocolate,” he tells me, and I hear the rustling of foil in the phone, like crackling on the air of a distant radio station.
It's not just dark chocolate that adds a bitter taste to this conversation.
From a chief cook to a drone operator
Hulk is 48 years old now. He did his military service in the mid-90s.
“Back then, it was believed that only suckers joined the army. I perceived the army differently. For a guy, it's a good school of life hardening. I have never regretted doing my military service for a single minute,” says Volodymyr.
Before joining the army, he studied to be a cook, so in his naval unit he was first a cook, then a driver and a paramedic. If he had known his future, he would have asked to be a machine gunner or a sapper...
“In 2014, I thought a lot about joining the ATO, but I didn't go any further. Although even then I realized that sooner or later there would be a big and fierce war with the Russians. In general, the Revolution of Dignity made me finally realize myself. I realized that freedom is the most important thing,” says Volodia.
In February 2022, he, a Kyiv-based businessman and land surveyor, sent his wife and children to Lviv and went to the military enlistment office.
Wearing sneakers, a home jacket, and a machine gun in hand, he took up positions in the industrial zone of Kyiv's left bank in late February as part of the Dniprovskyi District Territorial Defense.
“We used to joke back then, saying, ‘How long will we last — a week or two? But we lasted two months. We stood in the second line behind the 72nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Many of us had never held a weapon in our hands before. During these two months, we gained some faith in ourselves.”
At the end of April 2022, Volodymyr's unit was transferred to Kupiansk. Then it was the first line of defense, with a field between our and Russian positions that was shot through.
“Shells hit left and right, Russian armored vehicles were coming, and I still had this kind of childish naïve curiosity about the situation. I realized that they could kill me, but I didn't feel any fear. Only my breathing was getting faster.”
In the middle of the summer, the unit began to master drones. This is how the infantrymen began to turn into aerial reconnaissance men, and later became a battalion of strike UAVs.
“In two years, the drone has become a universal precision weapon in the war. It's a miracle: to remotely destroy enemy equipment and manpower while saving the lives of our soldiers! The future of war will be largely determined by drones.”
When the Kharkiv region was liberated in the fall of 2022, Hulk's unit was already fighting in the Svatove direction, where there were a lot of Russian mines. The sappers barely had time to clear the way for armored vehicles. They often could not reach the forest belts strewn with anti-personnel mines. And the autumnal foliage hid these mines even from experienced eyes.
Volodymyr hit the mine on October 18, 2022. The guys threw him a rope and pulled him out. It's a good thing they didn't come close to him — the sappers later said that every meter of that forest belt was packed with mines.
“People fight with much worse wounds!”
When the time came for prosthetics after his amputation, Volodymyr's family had already returned from evacuation to Kyiv. His wife was in the car with him when Volodymyr was driving to Berlin. She was sitting next to him, while he was driving.
“My foot was torn off. So what? I've seen such terrible injuries in hospitals! Mine is not scary at all. And my car is automatic, it drives itself. Yes, it was uncomfortable for me to drive it, but I tried, made sure I could. And I got there.”
The doctors at the Berlin Bundeswehr Hospital explained that Volodymyr needed another surgery before prosthetics, otherwise he would have serious problems in a few years. Hulk refused.
“Two months after I was wounded, I had to deal with prosthetics for God knows how long. And then I had another surgery — after it, I would be out of combat life for several more months. And there were heavy battles in our direction — I could not afford to be away for long.
I spent a month in Germany, got a prosthesis, underwent rehabilitation and returned to the guys in early summer 2023. My prosthesis is good, it can withstand a lot of physical activity, it's easy to move around, run, and carry loads with it.”
Doctors recommend removing the prosthesis every four hours to restore blood circulation in the leg. But how do you take it off on the position? It happened that Hulk was walking, running and performing his tasks for 12-15 hours. What ventilation for the stump, what massage and warnings of German doctors...
“I complete the task, wash up and pass out. I guess I'm being careless with myself, too brutal, even though I give others a lot of advice on how to take care of their health. I realize that at some point I will no longer be able to fulfill my duties, but for now everything is fine, I am in control of the situation.”
Since March, Hulk has been in his new position, which he calls “the commander's right hand”. Now he doesn't have to be constantly on the position — he goes there several times a week to assess the situation, make adjustments, control something, and help the combat teams in some way. The prosthesis does not interfere with his work. But he still does not have time to massage the stump.
“We have to be realistic”
His wife periodically tells Volodymyr that he has already paid his debt to his homeland. But Hulk does not think so. He is convinced that soldiers who joined the army voluntarily do not care about settling scores with their country. And this is what makes them different from those who were “dragged into the army”. But it is necessary to drag, too, Volodymyr says.
When the full-scale invasion began, his son was 16.
“One of the reasons I went to war was so that my son would never have to fight. But I didn’t win before he came of age. There is no positive in war. Dirt, death, destruction, losses.
For parents who do not have sons, it is easier to think about the war, easier to fight. I do not want my son to fight, but I am a realist. It may happen that my son will have to make a strong-willed decision and go to defend his country, his future. While I and other elders are fighting, he has the opportunity to prepare for the front.”
Hulk is surprised by adults who are excitedly waiting for quick victories and spectacular offensives. He believes that right now we need to be sober realists.
“We have a chance to fight for what is ours, and we have to fight. We do not have any successes on the frontline in the form of recaptured territories. But we are holding the defense against a powerful enemy at the level of 2022. We have destroyed hundreds of thousands of Russians and thousands of pieces of their armored vehicles. I believe this is our victory.”
...The two hours of conversation I had arranged with the press officer went by unnoticed. Maybe Hulk and I will pass each other in Kyiv one day and not recognize each other and that we once nibbled on chocolate so trustingly in the airwaves of war.