Clinical death, amputation, sitting volleyball. How sports bring veterans back to life

It's afternoon. Men in sportswear with backpacks are gathering at one of Kyiv's playgrounds. These are veterans and current soldiers with amputations and other injuries they suffered in the war.

Some of them don't even seem to notice the prosthetic leg anymore, while others limp a little and look carefully at their feet. There are those who still move slowly, leaning on crutches with both hands.

I arrived at the customary sitting volleyball training session. The team members were gearing up for their upcoming trip to America, as they are set to participate in a competition for veterans and military personnel with injuries and traumas in Las Vegas in March. The Ukrainian athletes will compete alongside representatives of the U.S. Air Force and Marines. These are the qualifying games for the Warrior Games, a tournament for all branches of the U.S. Army.

Athletes from Ukraine were invited as guest participants, but they will win real awards. 30 Ukrainian athletes will compete in archery, track and field, cycling, powerlifting, rowing, sitting volleyball, swimming, basketball and wheelchair rugby. All Ukrainian athletes compete in several disciplines at the same time. The Ukrainians will bring back dozens of awards from Las Vegas, including the volleyball gold medal. But the road to the coveted honors was still long. First, there was training.

Salvation by sport

High results are preceded by conscientious preparation. Before the trip, the team practiced for more than three months. In recent weeks, they have been practicing several times a day.

Their sitting volleyball coach, Yuriy Zekun, helps veterans and military personnel reach the top in adaptive sports. It is he and his assistant Oleksandr who install the volleyball net in the center of the field. It reaches the coach's waist, because the men will play sitting on the floor. The field is also smaller than in regular volleyball. To outline its boundaries, the coach fixes an adhesive strip on the floor.

"The main difference between sitting volleyball and the traditional game is that we sit on our buttocks and move with our arms. This is the difficulty: while in classical volleyball players can run to the ball with their feet, we have to move, receive the ball, hit, and pass it. And all this with your hands," explains coach Yuriy.

After months of hard training, he notes significant progress in the game of his proteges. Yuriy is also a "friend" to them. He himself fought near Mariupol back in 2014-2015. He was wounded, and underwent multiple surgeries and a long period of rehabilitation. Sport saved him – not only physically but also psychologically.

Once, on New Year's Eve, Yuriy made a promise to himself to start playing sports again. When he got involved himself, he started helping other injured people. Previously, he worked with veterans at a rehabilitation and sports center, and now he trains guys for the Invictus Games and the U.S. Air Force Competition. When the Russians started a full-scale war on February 24, 2022, despite his disability, he took up arms again and defended Kyiv as part of the Territorial Defense.

It's hard for the guys after being wounded. With amputations, especially high ones. Some can withdraw into themselves and they need to be pulled out. Sport helps to unload psychologically and also supports the body.Yuriy Zekun, sitting volleyball coach

The coach adds that in Ukraine, unfortunately, there are still problems with accessibility to sports for people with disabilities. But he believes that every year the situation will change for the better, and Ukraine will be on par with developed countries in terms of accessibility.

"Before the Invictus Games, we were at a training camp in Croatia. Even on the beach, there is special equipment in the form of a chair. A person with a disability sits on it, and it goes down into the sea so they can swim. Not even all our swimming pools are accessible," the coach complains.

"I did it, so others can do it too"

The guys are dressed in dark blue T-shirts with a telling inscription on the back: "Fighters whose will is stronger than their bodies." They don't start playing sitting volleyball right away as first they have to warm up and practice exercises. They start with the correct ball striking. Sitting in one row, they hit the ball against the wall. Coach Yuriy and his assistant Oleksandr monitor the technique. If they see a mistake, they immediately explain what's wrong and how to fix it.

After hitting the wall, the ball doesn't always go straight into the player's hands. To catch it, the men move with their arms, sometimes falling on their backs. When the ball rolls too far, the coach throws a new one into their hands.

Skillfully handling all the tasks is the team captain – 30-year-old Yuriy Haponchuk. He has been playing soccer and volleyball regularly since high school. After the amputation of his left leg below the knee, he started playing soccer on crutches. In addition to sitting volleyball, he will also show his skills in powerlifting at the competition in the United States.

"While I was still in rehabilitation, I started going to the gym to bring my physical fitness back to normal. And today I can confidently say that sport is one of the best types of rehabilitation," says Yuriy.

For me, going in for sports is on par with spending time with my family and friends. I'm surrounded by like-minded people here, and the support is just overwhelming.Yuriy Haponchuk, serviceman, sitting volleyball player

He is an active serviceman with the rank of captain. Before he was wounded, he was the commander of a company of operational purpose of the 50th Semen Vysochan regiment of the National Guard. Today he is the head of the social work service in the same regiment. He lives in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.

Since March 2022, the captain had been on assignment in Maryinka, Donetsk Oblast. In the spring of 2023, during a combat mission to Luhansk Oblast, he tripped a mine and lost a limb. Today, he uses a prosthesis that he received at the expense of the state.

He learned about the competition in the United States at work. He immediately decided to fill out a questionnaire and went to training.

"First of all, this is a great exchange of experience for me. Because in Ukraine, we already see what kind of veterans we have and what problems they have with rehabilitation. I would like to see what opportunities veterans have in America and how they are treated there," Yuriy says.

He is modest about his duties as team captain. He says that first and foremost, it's about maintaining team spirit and giving tips to the players during the match. He also discusses controversial issues with the referee. By his example, Yuriy wants to show other veterans with injuries that under any circumstances, you have to live and move forward every day.

"Before I was injured, I didn't like to sit still: I was constantly participating in various competitions and events. Perhaps this personal trait gave me the impetus to get up and start exercising, to do something with myself. So if I could do it, others can do it too," the soldier concludes.

"If not for the tree, I would have died"

Meanwhile, the players are practicing the next exercise – a pass from above. Four athletes stand on both sides of the net: one throws the ball, the other deflects it. Coach Yuriy is watching the process closely. Sometimes he comes up to a player and explains what he is doing wrong and how to do it instead.

"If a person shuts down, communication helps to open him or her up. I tell the guys about myself, about the problems I had after the injury. I give them advice on the game, listen to them," the coach says about the peculiarities of working with his proteges. "I can find an approach to anyone, it's not difficult. However, one person needs more time, and another needs less."

The coach crouches down on one knee next to Ruslan, a bright-eyed guy. He shows him that he needs to bend his elbows when passing the ball. The lad wipes the sweat from his face, nods and repeats the movements the coach has just shown him. Six months ago, Ruslan had never even heard of sitting volleyball, and now he is already making successful passes.

We meet Ruslan Sumin after the game. He, like Yuriy, is 30 years old. He is a senior soldier of the 71st Separate Jaeger Brigade of the Air Assault Forces. Back in 2014-2015, he visited all the hottest spots of the first phase of the war: Stanytsia Luhanska, Makarove, Horlivka, Zaitseve, Debaltseve. He came out of the Debaltseve cauldron. He received shrapnel wounds and four contusions, was demobilized and returned to civilian life. But a few years later, he went back to war.

"On the morning of February 24, 2022, a missile hit the building opposite. I realized that the war had started. I immediately called my fellow soldiers from the 13th Motorized Infantry Battalion ‘Chernihiv-1’ with whom I served in 2014-2015. They told me to pack and come to them. I said goodbye to my wife and son, told them I loved them, and went to the military enlistment office. There were long lines, and I was taken only on March 3," Ruslan recalls.

After training in Lviv Oblast, he was assigned to the newly formed 71st Separate Jaeger Brigade of the Air Assault Forces. Ruslan was supposed to be an operator of the Stugna ATGM, but the brigade never fired it.

Instead, Ruslan performed tasks in Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast. In the spring of 2022, he fell into an enemy ambush there.

"There was a heavy mortar attack, and one of the shells fell a meter from my head. If not for the tree, I would have died," he recalls.

Then he suffered severe shrapnel wounds to his legs and could not walk. Ruslan put a tourniquet on his right leg, but he could not do it on his left leg because he did not have a spare. Ruslan was bleeding for two and a half hours. During this time, his brothers-in-arms found a ground sheet and dragged him to the evacuation point. There they put on a second tourniquet and took him to Lozova.

"They said they didn't do this kind of thing and referred me to Kharkiv. It all took another six and a half hours," Ruslan says.

He experienced clinical death, and doctors said he survived by a miracle. Unfortunately, the foot on his right leg had to be amputated. Now Ruslan uses an ordinary prosthesis, but he wants to get a sports prosthesis to make it easier to lead an active lifestyle. But in his left leg (which had been without a tourniquet for two and a half hours), he lost sensitivity from the knee to the tips of his toes.

Doctors promise that sensitivity will return to his left leg, but it will take 10 years. Now I am actively engaged in sports to keep my muscles from atrophying and to keep them the same as before the injury.Ruslan Sumin, serviceman and sitting volleyball player

He recalls that he used to do Muay Thai boxing, then switched to mixed martial arts. After his foot was amputated, he met some veterans who practiced jiu-jitsu and started training with them. Ruslan Sumin continues to serve in the army in a military registration and enlistment center.

At the competition in Las Vegas, the military will participate in a sitting volleyball tournament, rowing on simulators and two track and field disciplines – shot put and discus throw. He says that the last few weeks have been very busy, with several training sessions every day. But participating in competitions motivates him to work even harder and achieve winning results.

"I would never have thought that I would come to this country as a veteran"

The whistle sounds. After it the voice of coach Yuriy Zekun is heard: "Break!" The men go to drink water and take a break. Some of them lie down on the floor, others put on their prosthesis and go to get some fresh air. After a few rounds of serving and accuracy exercises, the last stage of training begins – the actual game.

The men are divided into two teams, six in each. The coach and his assistant will play alongside the boys.

Artem Pohorilyi, a 40-year-old veteran from Poltava, is on the team with the head coach. He stretches his arms before the game and gets comfortable in his seat under the net.

Artem's main sport is swimming. He completely lost his right leg in the war, but this does not prevent him from swimming well. He says he loves team sports, so at the competition in America he will also play sitting volleyball.

Artem is confident and serious. During training, he receives phone calls from time to time, so during the break he writes a message to someone instead of resting. Later, I find out that in civilian life Artem is an entrepreneur and a methodology instructor at Poltava Children's and Youth Sports School No. 1. He tells me that he went to war in the first days of the full-scale invasion as a volunteer. He was a senior soldier in the 62nd Separate Rifle Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is originally from Poltava.

"At first, we were assigned to a security company. I was in it for several months. We could no longer wait in Poltava, we wanted to do some good. So we started writing reports to be transferred to a combat unit. At the end of September 2022, we were transferred to the east," Artem Pohorilyi recalls his military career.

On October 7, 2022, the man came under a mortar attack near Bakhmut and sustained shrapnel wounds to his left leg. It was not possible to save it. Doctors fought for Artem's life for a long time. His kidneys even began to fail, and only after undergoing two dozen hemodialysis procedures did he begin to recover.

Rehabilitation therapists worked with us in the hospital. They made us get up and do exercises. They did not spare us, and I am grateful to them for that.Artem Pohorilyi, veteran and sitting volleyball player

"Rehabilitators looked at who had what problems. They told me that I needed to make my body stronger and get ready for walking and prosthetics," says the veteran.

The man quickly got back on his feet and underwent prosthetics under the state program. He did not give up sports. During this time, he even managed to set a world record for strongman. In the fall of 2023, in Madrid, he and a team of other amputee veterans pulled four trucks with a rope in 30 seconds.

"I'm going to the United States to remind people about the war in Ukraine and to show foreigners who they are helping and why," says Artem Pohorilyi. "I would never have thought that I would be in this country as a veteran. We will compete with dignity and glorify Ukraine and our military."

The first game. The team Artem plays for is in the lead. Their opponents, led by captain Yuriy Haponchuk, are sighing in frustration. The scoreboard shows 25 points and the game is over.

In the second game, Artem's team wins again. But in the third game they lose, and the score is 2-1.

The tension builds as the fourth and decisive round begins. "We have to win anyway, guys," says captain Yuriy. His team is still behind in games.

The ball flies to one player and then to another. It lands on the floor. A point! The next draw, followed by another. The boys are nervously looking at the scoreboard. The forces are equal. Sweat appears on the foreheads of the players, one man falls on his back, but manages to pass the ball. The game continues.

Outside spectators gather in the hall, watching the game with interest. Suddenly, a clumsy question with a hint of surprise comes from somewhere: "Are you disabled?"

Coach Yuriy does not remain silent. Distracted from the game, he turns his gaze to the side and loudly explains to the audience that sitting volleyball is a Paralympic sport.

"What kind of question is that?" one of the veterans says with surprise. But in the end, this does not disturb the atmosphere on the playground. The guys are 100% committed to the game and do not pay attention to what is happening off the court as all their attention is on the ball.

They finish with a draw - 2:2 in games. The men are tired but happy. They shake hands and thank each other for the game. The athletes put on their prostheses, take their crutches, and hurry home. They need to get some rest and gain strength before the next training session, which will take place the very next morning.

Author: Anastasia Koval