"You can go to war with a bionic hand, but there are some nuances." A 20-year veteran about life with three prostheses

“I said: ‘You can shoot me’. They started interrogating me.”

Daniil Melnik is 20 years old. He has a sincere smile and big green eyes. And even though he has prostheses on both legs and a state-of-the-art bionic arm made in the United States, he is thirsty for life and has plans and dreams.

For the first time, he went rollerblading on prostheses, plays ball with friends who are also undergoing rehabilitation, dives into the pool, dances, does push-ups, controls a bionic arm, and learns to live in a new way – all this is actively demonstrated by Daniil on his TikTok.

A few weeks ago, he received a permanent bionic arm. Before that, he had been walking with a training myoelectric prosthesis for two months. It was provided free of charge by an American foundation founded at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Now the young man is in the United States, and we communicate with him via video call.

“After the 11th grade, I entered the Lviv Military Academy, majoring in mechanized units, i.e. infantry. In 2.5 years of study, I became a junior sergeant and was trained as a platoon commander. On February 26, 2022, we were scheduled to graduate,” theboy says.

On February 27, 2022, the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Prince Roman the Great, in which 19-year-old Daniil was appointed deputy commander, was sent on a combat mission. At first, the unit was stationed in Malyn, Zhytomyr Oblast. A few days later, it went to Kyiv Oblast.

“On March 7, we formed a battalion for the offensive and moved towards Borodianka. We had seven armored personnel carriers, a tank, and a medical vehicle,” hesays. “When we arrived there, we were ambushed by Russians.”

A battle broke out in a Russian-occupied village. The battalion lost many men. Daniil was hit by shrapnel under his left buttock, but he continued to shoot back. After another explosion, his left hand was shattered, and his fingers were injured on his right hand. Melnyk gave his comrades ammunition and grenades and crawled into a pantry. He thought he would die there.

“I stayed there for two days wounded. The evacuation was no longer possible. They (Russians – ed.) were barging into the houses, looking for something, and that's how they found me. I immediately told them that I would not talk, so they could shoot me. They started interrogating me anyway.”

Locals could not help the wounded Daniil, because the occupiers tightly controlled them and did not allow them to leave their homes. After long interrogations, the young Russian soldiers provided first aid to the wounded man and fed him a little. And then the captivity began...

Basement, malnutrition, and hospital in Russia

The 19-year-old was taken to a field hospital in Belarus along with the wounded Russians. It was bitterly cold outside.

“I was hungry for several days and gradually froze my arms and legs off,” herecalls.

At the field hospital, he was given bandages, stitched up his wounds, and sent to the basement.

“There were Ukrainian civilians with me. For example, a man from Malyn. Before he was captured, he was hiding in the basement of his house with his family. The Russians took him away from there because they found a rusty shotgun at home. They called the man a Nazi and took him prisoner. He was beaten all over and had frozen feet,” Daniil recalls.

Then he was going to be sent to a detention center in Russia, but his condition was extremely serious.

“We were taken out of Belarus in batches. There were 65 prisoners, of which only 15 were military and the rest were civilians. I was not taken. Somehow I ended up in a civilian hospital in Rylsk,” says Daniil.

There, they amputated his left hand, which had begun to rot. His right fingers were frozen, and four of them had to be cut off.

“And my feet were completely frozen. They amputated my fingers there. Then I just lay there and was injected with antibiotics. The food was miserable. I was constantly hungry. I was lucky when the elderly lady, who was in the ward next to me, would quietly spread jam on bread at night and give it to me, and I had a good snack.”

“You can go to war with a bionic arm”

On April 21, 2022, a prisoner exchange took place and Daniil returned home. Two days later, in Kyiv, he had two feet amputated. Then he was transported to Lviv for rehabilitation, and from there to Lublin.

“I was planning to get prosthetics under the state program, but I accidentally came across the Protez Foundation. I went to the United States. There, I was immediately provided with mechanical and sports prosthetic legs and cosmetic and bionic prosthetic arms. Everything was completely free of charge.”

Now Daniil Melnyk is undergoing physical and psychological rehabilitation in the United States. For two months, he walked with a training bionic prosthesis. Specialists at the rehabilitation center monitored the guy's comfort with it and made a permanent bionic prosthesis based on the results.

“As soon as I arrived at the rehabilitation center, I was able to pick up the cubes and start moving them. Of course, this is not my arm and I feel it differently. But today I can already hold a glass, a backpack, a phone, button my jacket, press laptop keys or hold a mouse. Another big plus is that my hand is not resting and is always busy working. Now I have a hand, symmetry, and it's great.”

Daniil has an app on his phone for his bionic arm. It has more than 20 commands that the bionic arm can execute. The guy gives an impulse with his stump and the hand performs the corresponding movements.

“You can go to war with a bionic arm, but there are a few nuances. First, it is less resistant to shock than a conventional mechanical arm. If it breaks, it may take some time to repair. Also, this hand is not very sharp and quick in reaction, which is very necessary in war. That is why in the field I prefer a conventional mechanical prosthesis. With it, I can easily do push-ups, lift weights, or anything else heavy. But the bionic prosthesis is more suitable for meetings and going to the office.”

The Protez Foundation has its service center in Svaliava, Zakarpattia Oblast, so if something breaks, Daniil will be able to have his arm repaired. He is currently finishing up his prosthetics in the United States. Here, he is involved in a project to train military veterans and employ them. He wants to take courses and become a psychologist to help his brothers and sisters-in-arms cope with the consequences of war.

How it works, how much it costs, and how long it will last

Mechanical and bionic prostheses have different purposes. The former is more functional in the field and is subject to physical activity, while the latter imitates a human hand, opens up many possibilities, but is quite demanding.

“A bionic prosthetic arm works like an electrocardiogram. Electrodes go to a person's forearm, read a certain muscle group, and the arm opens or closes accordingly,” says Yakov Gradinar, chief medical officer and co-founder of the Protez Foundation. “The bionic leg prosthesis has sensors that read the position of the knee in space, the patient's movement, and the load from the foot. The computer inside processes all this and helps with its work. For example, if a person stumbles and starts to fall, the sensor will recognize this and help hold the patient to prevent them from falling. In addition, such a prosthesis can adjust the walking speed.”

State-of-the-art prosthetic arms are quite expensive: from 9 to 30 thousand dollars. Most of them are affected by water and dirt, so using them in war is quite risky. Such a prosthesis can be easily broken by simply hitting it.

Manufacturers provide a three-year warranty for bionic upper limb prostheses. Yakov Gradinar says that such products last from three to five years.

“All prostheses need to be replaced after a certain period. However, it is worth remembering that a prosthesis is a constructor. If any part of it is broken, it can be replaced and redesigned,” summarizes Nazar Bahniuk, head of the prosthetics department at the First Medical Association of Lviv.

Money down the drain?

The Ministry of Social Policy assures that there is money and plans for free prosthetics. As of June 26, the state budget provides almost 2.8 billion hryvnias for aid for people who have lost limbs and for compensation if a person bought a prosthesis with their own money. An additional UAH 356 million has been allocated for bionic prostheses.

The Ministry of Social Policy also explained that combatants first receive a mechanical prosthesis, and only after 12 months they are provided with bionics and/or special products for sports. “However, the multidisciplinary team of a medical institution or a doctor at the enterprise where the prosthetics will be performed determines which product a combatant needs. After all, prosthetics is primarily aimed at enabling a person to return to society and lead an active life,” the Ministry of Social Policy said in response to our request.

According to Yakov Gradinar, a prosthetist at the Protez Foundation, the practice of installing state-of-the-art prostheses a year after the initial prosthetics is justified: “The situation is similar in the United States. Why does the system work this way? So that the patient can show that he is active and will use the prosthesis, and the money will not be wasted.”

However, Ukrainian soldiers do not have time to wait for a year and are already looking for opportunities to get prosthetics using the latest technologies.

“I think the state wants to save money in this way,” says veteran Daniil Melnyk, “But today there are many good prosthetic centers where you can be provided with everything you need. For example, I have two prostheses to choose from. I will use one when I go to the gym., I'll put on the other one, the bionic one, before going into town. You have no restrictions and it's really cool.”

Author: Anastasiia Koval