Sniper's job is quite boring: Hero of Ukraine Dmytro Finashyn

The first bullet broke the index finger on his right hand. The second one hit his helmet, but it held up. The third one shattered a bone on his left forearm. Luckily, he was helped to put tourniquets on both arms.

One comrade is wounded. Another one will die later. Dmytro Finashyn, call sign "Fin," will be left alone for almost two days. He would drink water from puddles and get delirious, but this, as it would turn out later, would save his life — crawling toward his fellow soldiers and the Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles he had imagined, he kept moving and did not die because of it.

Four months later, he would be awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the Gold Star for his courage.

Lost a lot of blood, found on the third day

On February 23, 2022, soldier Dmytro Finashyn and his brigade were in Popasna, Luhansk Oblast. The next day they were supposed to go to Stanytsia Luhanska. However, in the morning, the plans changed as the commander woke him up and said that the war had broken out.

After that, the brigade ended up in Kharkiv Oblast, guarding a dam on the Oskil River. It was there that Dmytro met his first battle of the full-scale invasion.

On May 23, Finashyn, along with soldiers from the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, had to clear a plantation near the village of Yakovlivka in Donetsk Oblast. There they were ambushed by Russians. Together with his two brothers-in-arms — "Socrates" and the wounded "Azovchyk" — the already wounded "Fin" tried to crawl into the wood line. They could not be evacuated because of the shelling. Due to blood loss, Dmytro lost consciousness. When he woke up, the guys were gone.

As he found out later, “Socrates” tried to find a way out, and the Russians shot him. Then they took his radio station and reported that he was dead and that they had killed all the "wounded". "Azovchyk” crawled toward the Ukrainian fighters using another way, but they were already gone. He did not return to "Fin" because he got lost in the woods.

On the third day, the exhausted Dmytro Finashyn was found by soldiers of the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade. And then there were hospitals. First in Bakhmut, then an infirmary in Dnipro. There Dmytro had his left arm and index finger amputated.

"I liked boyish games with guns"

Dmytro Finashyn will turn 29 in March. He is from Kozyatyn, Vinnytsia Oblast. He studied at a railroad vocational school because he comes from a family of railroad workers. We're talking to “Fin” via the Internet because Dmytro is currently in the United States. He went there to take part in events in support of Ukraine.

"Did I want to be a soldier? In fact, it is difficult for children to imagine what they want to be. Some say they want to be an astronaut, some say they want to be president. But I really liked boyish games with guns. I saw myself following that path. So yes, I can say that I wanted to be a military man since childhood. But at a certain point I got a little burnt out because I saw how contract soldiers serve in the Ukrainian army, which was what it was like before 2014. So then my desires came to naught. And then the war broke out, and I decided that I would go after all."

He joined in 2015 when he signed a contract with the National Guard. In 2017, he was already fighting in the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone. At first, he was a drone operator in a counter sniper group, then a deputy commander of an aerial reconnaissance platoon, and then retrained as a sniper. This job is quite boring, he says, and its romanticized perception is credited to cinematography.

"To be a sniper, it's not enough to be a good shooter, you need to have the right type of temperament, to be somewhat phlegmatic. For example, the American military emphasizes that the best shooters are slow, sluggish, and think over every next step. This work is not about chaos and fuss, not about excessive emotionality. Generally speaking, emotions kill in war. I noticed this even before the full-scale operation, and it has been confirmed more than once."

Black humor and the ability to laugh at yourself

Dmytro's story is a vivid example of how the ability to take yourself in hand saves lives. Or, as the fighter himself jokes, "in my case, indeed, in one hand." The right hand missing an index finger.

"Fin" does not deny himself the pleasure of joking about his injury: "I'm hands down for positivity," he compares himself to The Simpsons characters, alluding to the number of fingers on his and the cartoon characters' surviving hand. Sometimes the irony and black humor are not immediately apparent.

In one photo on Instagram, his palm strokes a red kitten, and in another, a Russian military tag is also in the palm of his hand. The captions to both have explanations: Dmytro points out that it is "his ex" petting the kitten and that it is "his ex" holding the tag. It takes a few seconds to catch the humor, because both photos show the man's palm — of the left hand.

When I ask Dmytro if I understand right what he means, he laughs. Yes, that's right. He refers to his left arm, which he lost in the war, as his ex.

"I was always into black humor. And now there is a topic that I can joke about normally, and no one is offended. Previously, jokes were usually about other people, but now it's just mine, and no one can call me out for it," Dmytro laughs.

Insta-sniper

“Fin” started actively maintaining his Instagram page after being wounded. "The guys told me: ‘Dmytro, get on Instagram!’ I said: ‘What do I need it for? I don't want to’. Instead, they explained to me that many guys who know my story want to hear what it was like," and “Fin” eventually started a page.

Initially, it was intended for "warriors". A volunteer blogger was supposed to stream a conversation with Dmytro. And then it went from there.

"People are interested, so I write there. But it's not my thing, not that I'm interested in doing it. Although I have a lot of videos that I need to sit down and put together, and I'll have cool videos, like serious bloggers. But I don't feel like it," Dmytro laughs. “My hands never get around to doing it."

But he does manage to work out regularly with a physical rehabilitation trainer, drive a car and even pilot an airplane. Recently, Dmytro, along with other wounded Ukrainian soldiers, visited the United States. There, the local Ukrainian diaspora arranged for the guys to try their hand at piloting under the supervision of an instructor.

"It's very interesting and quite easy. It's almost like driving a car, just with different buttons. I've never piloted before, I've only been involved with unmanned aerial vehicles. The instructor asked if I had ever flown before because I was doing so well. Indeed, I do have hundreds of flying hours, albeit unmanned."

"Freedom is not free"

His black patch has an inscription in English in red color: "Every day of freedom is veterans day." In the United States, the Ukrainian diaspora gave Dmytro this souvenir. And Americans themselves give him an understanding of how society should treat the military.

"Strangers come up to you and give you $20, saying, 'Here, treat yourself to a cup of coffee with the lads. I refuse, because I don't need it. And they ask: ‘My friend, you fought, you fought so that I could live here in peace, and I'm thanking you for that, this is at least some contribution from me’, and they get offended if you don't take the money. They understand that freedom is not free. You paid a high price for it. I think this should come to us over time. And if our society doesn't understand this and doesn't change, then it's all probably in vain — thousands of people died in vain. But I am an optimist."

Sooner or later, the military will take off their uniforms, but respect and sensitivity to people who survived the war must remain. And it should be manifested not only in words.

"In America, I saw one facility where I had to take a guy with no legs on my arm to carry him in while others brought in a wheelchair. And so far, in terms of inclusiveness, everything is ‘fantastic’: no ramps, nothing. We will come to this with time. We just need to be more attentive to the needs of other people. If you see a person with a prosthesis limping, let them get on the bus, let them get in and sit down, and don't say 'it's okay' and 'I didn't send you there'." 

"Look, I just survived, and should I be awarded a Hero for that?"

"I am very grateful to my wife and friends. I don't know what would have happened if I had been alone. I would probably have given up on everything and gone to the front somewhere. And there... I don't know..."

Currently, Dmytro is undergoing the process of prosthetics. He is waiting for all the parts of his "constructor" to be assembled together to get a new arm and learn to use it. However, he will not be able to return to sniping.

"After I was wounded, I tried shooting, but now I can only do it as a hobby. I can go to the range with my own weapon and shoot there. But at war — no, I can let someone down. I thought maybe I would return to the direction of drones, to do administrative work. I am already drawing some more realistic plans. Maybe I'll become an instructor, but I'm not sure. I need to study a specific area first. Because general military training is good, but to teach others, you need to go beyond the level of a user. Perhaps, if I am more ambitious, I will be a platoon commander for aerial reconnaissance."

As for the title of Hero of Ukraine, “Fin” admits that he was not immediately happy as he did not think he deserved it.

"People say you're a model of resilience and invincibility, you fought for your life. And I think: ‘Look, I just survived, and should I be given a Hero for that?’ I think it's not enough for something like that. And then they say to me: ‘But we nominated you posthumously’. And I was like: ‘Oh, so it's not for just surviving?’ and that made me happy. Because I couldn't explain this award to myself at all. Plus, it's a huge responsibility to society and the country as a whole, and now I'm afraid to cut my eye at someone, lest they say to me later: ‘Hey, you're a Hero of Ukraine, and you do this!’" the fighter laughs.

Author: Iryna Nebesna