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 1,096 soldiers have been killed and 3,799 injured in the war so far.
Oleksandr Tarasiuk, 46, a soldier who volunteered to join the 34th battalion, is amused that there is a $10,000 bounty on his head placed by the self-proclaimed separatist Luhansk People’s Republic.
Tarasiuk is a Luhansk native who has tricked the Kremlin-backed separatists on his home ground.
He volunteered as a rebel fighter and then deserted to serve in the Ukrainian army. “That kept my family safe for awhile, as they thought I was fighting for them, while I was fighting against them,” Tarasiuk says with a smile.
When the truth came out, he barely made it in time to get his wife and mother-in-law out to safety. His home in Stanitsa-Luhanska, a village some five kilometers from the city, was destroyed.
He spent more than three months in the war zone. According to Tarasiuk, their group’s main task was to take over the block posts ahead of the main Ukrainian army forces and rid the small towns of separatists. His unit came under shelling in the fight for Hostra Mohyla in Luhansk Oblast in late August. Tarasiuk sustained a serious injury. His leg was amputated above his knee in the local hospital in Debaltseve, a city on the border between Luhansk and Donetsk oblast.
The war didn’t end for Tarasiuk after the first surgery. The small local hospital was constantly shelled. Tarasiuk spent three days sitting in a wheelchair in a hospital lobby, holding a gun, expecting an attack. His wound began to fester. When Tarasiuk was moved to Kharkiv and later to Kyiv, further amputation was required, followed by 10 more surgeries.
For 15 years, Tarasiuk worked as a coal miner in Luhansk Oblast and for another 15 years as a steel plant worker. “I understand there is no way I am coming back home, and there is no home, but I remain in high spirits, see,” he says and smiles heartily.
However, despite the humor and bravado, the loss of his home area remains a trauma for Tarasiuk. The man’s wife and mother-in-law now live in a temporary campus for refugees in Irpin. “You know, it is kind of hard to be left without home when you are 46,” Tarasiuk says. He hopes that volunteers’ help and financial assistance from the state will help him buy at least a small apartment somewhere around Kyiv.
The soldier is a celebrity in Irpin Military Hospital where he undergoes rehabilitation. He is never too shy or too sad to share his war experience, and his stories always get listeners. “I think people should know what’s going on there and I have nothing to hide,” Tarsiuk explains and lights up a cigarette. “And you know what, I will never regret I was fighting,” he adds.
To transfer money to help Oleksandr Tarasiuk, send to this account:
Privat Bank
Card number: 5168 7572 2250 4088
Receiver: Oleksandr Tarasiuk
Account number: 29244825509100
Bank code: 305299
Enterprize code: 14360570
