Oleksandr Brodiuk loves to give hugs, even though hugging became hard for him.
Brodiuk, 36, has lost his right arm in Russia’s war against
Ukraine in November. He never loses his spirit though and never grumbles.
Brodiuk, a native of Slavuta in Khmelnytskiy Oblast, volunteered
for the Ukrainian army right after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March
2014. He started his service in August and after a few months of training he was
sent to the war zone.
For several months his brigade participated in various combat
missions until it was sent to Pisky, from where the soldiers were supposed to
rotate the defenders of Donetsk airport.
“We were supposed to go to the airport the next day after arrival,
but have stuck there due to heavy shelling for three days,” Brodiuk recalls.
In Pisky Brodiuk and his two comrades were badly injured by a
mortar mine debris. He lost his right arm. His friends died.
Brodiuk says his life before the war was “ordinary.” He graduated
from college, served a mandatory time in the army, and got a job at a local
factory. He got married and had two sons.
It was because of the family issues that he couldn’t go
participate in the EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv in February 2014. He was
supposed to go to Kyiv on Feb. 19, 2014, but his sons and wife got ill. On the
next day the government forces killed dozens protesters in Kyiv, and on the day
after that the revolution ended.
So when the Russia-inspired separatist conflict broke out in
Ukraine’s east a month later, Brodiuk was eager to make himself helpful. He
joined the army at once.
Brodiuk says he doesn’t like to be called a hero and claims he
went to the war only because he thought he could help.
“During my (mandatory) time in the army I learned to shoot from
all kinds of small arms and thought I can advise on how to do this or that,” he
says.
After he was wounded Brodiuk was sent from one hospital to another
before he ended up in Lviv for the final surgeries. He left the hospital at the
end of December. He couldn’t work in his old factory job anymore.
But he found the way to keep himself busy. He has been working to launch
an association of war veterans in his home town.
“I told my comrades – I am an invalid and I’m supposed to have
green light everywhere. Instead I still don’t have all the necessary documents
to prove I was at war. So when you will come back – no one will even look at
you,” Brodiuk says bitterly.
He is concerned that as time goes by people and even volunteers helping
army will forget about the war veterans. He realized he wasn’t the only one to
be forgotten in his town, and decided to join forces with other local veterans.
Brodiuk’s association is meant to guide and assist war veterans in
getting all the necessary documents confirming their veteran status, to get state
benefits or medical help.
Creating a local war veterans association is a totally right thing
to do, in the opinion of Andriy Kozinchuk, a war psychologist. Besides helping
each other to get through bureaucracy traps the veterans can also help each
other overcome the psychological trauma.
According to Kozinchuk, most people who come back from war can’t
talk about their trauma to those who haven’t been to war. In the end they can get
lost in the society, not knowing what to say and how to act, while at a veteran
association they can find their comfort zone.
“Whatever they do – solve problems or simply hang out together – it
brings them maximum good,” Kozinchuk says. “Besides an arm (Brodiuk) has left a
big part of himself at the war. This hole has to be filled and that’s what he
is doing.”
Brodiuk himself still doesn’t have necessary documents and is not
sure a state will pay for a functional prosthesis for him any time soon. But he
assures he doesn’t regret his decision to fight for Ukraine.
“I would regret it
if I had lost my arm in Iraq or Afghanistan, where I would have been driven by
adrenalin rush or money, but here is different,” he says. “Here we were
defending our own land.”
Brodiuk says he remembers only one line from his army oath: “I
swear to serve the people of Ukraine.” That line he thought was the most important
one and that oath he kept.
To help Oleksandr Brodiuk one can send money to the volunteer in charge
Vyacheslav Trachuk.
PrivatBank Card Number
5168 7423 2867 1155
PayPal
If you mean the money to be sent
specifically to Brodiuk, not other former soldiers or their families, fill in
his name in the payment purpose
