Editor’s Note: Ukraine's Heroes is a Kyiv Post project devoted to Ukrainian army heroes injured in Russia's war against the nation. Periodically we will tell the stories of these wounded warriors, many of whom need money for treatment, surgeries and prosthesis. At least 620 soldiers have been killed and 2,283 injured in the war so far.
Kateryna Hordiychuk, a young woman in her 30s, sits down on a neatly made bed in the hospital room to tell her husband’s war story while he is out for a cigarette. The room is full of light, freshly repaired and looks more like home with a new modern refrigerator, a microwave stove and some fruits in the vase on the table. There are six beds in the room, but only two are occupied by Gordichuk and her husband Serhiy.
Serhiy Hordiychuk, 35, from Volyn Oblast was mobilized
in mid-March for 10-day military training, but had to undergo urgent
stomach surgery and stayed in military hospital for treatment. After the
rehabilitation the man was sent to country’s east and then injured in a fight
on Aug. 4.
“He spent a couple of weeks in the East and got an arm
injury, so here we are,” his wife says casually as the door opens and Serhiy
Hordiychuk comes in.
The soldier’s arm was amputated in early August, his
forearm is still covered in bloody bandages and a dozen tubes are attached to the
fresh wound.
“I used to work on constructions in Moscow, no longer
will,” says Serhiy Hordiychuk. He came back from Russia only some few days
before he was taken away from home for a military training and then to war.
“Sounds like a joke,” the man smiles.
But it is not. The war was as real as it gets.
Serhiy Hordiychuk’s infantry brigade was taking part in the military sweep of
the territory between two villages in Donetsk Oblast when the
brigade fell into a trap and was shelled by Grad rockets.
“The Grad was fired
from the Russian territory and then terrorists on the Ukrainian side joined the
attack,” he says.
Hordiychuk was wounded by rocket shrapnel and evacuated just
ten minutes later when the attack was repulsed.
“We were taken to the first aid unit, but when we were
attempted to be moved to a hospital the helicopter was shelled again,” the
soldier says. It took some seven hours to take the injured militants to the
hospital in Dnipropetrovsk. And such a delay appeared to be critical.
“It was hot and after seven hours in such heat the
tissue began to die,” the man says sadly and looks at his wound.
Both Serhiy
and Kateryna Hordiychuk ensure the doctors in both Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv
hospitals did everything they could to save his arm. “But trying to save my arm longer
would mean risking my life, and I am grateful they made the right decision,” the
soldier says.
His wife, a nurse, agrees: “When I came and saw his
arm it was already black, so I knew there are no chances,” she says.
It is yet hard to say how long the rehabilitation will
take, so no plans for the future can be made.
The couple has two children – 13-year-old daughter
Valentyna and 6-year-old son Sasha. “We are not telling them anything yet, just
that dad is sick, though I am sure the daughter understands,” the man sighs.
Hordiychuk says he is not a hero, as he did not plan to
go to war. And even when he was at the military training he did not think he would actually end up in the war zone.
“But thanks to the stomach disease it turns out that I volunteered, another joke of life,” he says with a sad laugh.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].
Project photographer Pavlo Podufalov can be reached at [email protected].
The following are bank details (PrivatBank Card number) of Serhiy Hordiychuk and contacts of his wife:
PrivatBank Card
5168757260987831 (Serhiy Hordiychuk)
Kateryna Hordiychuk (wife)
Mob.: 0983521433
