In the predawn hours of Feb. 24, Russian troops poured over Ukraine’s borders while missiles flashed across the dark sky, marking the inception of the largest air, sea and ground assault in Europe since World War II.
For months leading up to the full-scale invasion, the U.S. and its Western allies watched a steady buildup of Kremlin forces along Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus. The increased military presence mimicked Russian moves ahead of its 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea, which sparked international uproar and triggered sanctions aimed at Moscow’s war machine.
The Kremlin all the while denied that its colossal troop deployment along Ukraine’s borders was a prelude to an assault.
Since Russia invaded its fellow ex-Soviet neighbor a year ago, the war has claimed the lives of more than 8,000 civilians, led to nearly 13,300 injuries and displaced more than 8 million people, according to U.N. estimates.
Meanwhile, the lives of many soldiers such as Horodenskyi who had survived their ordeals were forever changed by the brutal conflict.
At the time of the invasion, Horodenskyi was serving with the 36th Brigade of the Ukrainian marines as a machine gunner near Mariupol. Following in the footsteps of the men in his family, Horodenskyi had joined the military when he was 18 years old. He exchanged his hometown of Odesa, a populous municipality on the Black Sea coast, for the once-industrious southeastern port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.
In April, the marines in Horodenskyi’s unit were the first line of defense in the city, which was home to 400,000 people before the war.
His unit was scattered around the perimeter of Illich Iron and Steel Works, Europe’s largest manufacturer of galvanized steel, when Russian fire encroached on his position. Horodenskyi moved behind a tree.
While he can recall the mine explosion that took his left leg and shredded his right arm, the aftermath is a blur.
He remembers his fellow marines moving him, he remembers the pressure of the tourniquets and the rush to a makeshift field hospital.
“I was in this sort of dark basement shelter with other wounded soldiers. There was hardly any medicine or supplies or food. There was really nothing,” Horodenskyi recalls.
For a little over a week, he sheltered in place with his “brothers,” as he calls them, until the last of the painkillers, bandages, water and ammunition ran out. Meanwhile, Russia bombarded the expended Ukrainian marines, and troops continued to advance on them.
“His commander made the difficult decision to surrender to the Russians, and the wounded were taken to a field hospital in Donetsk,” Vengrenyuk said. “At that facility, there was one side for the [uninjured] imprisoned, another for wounded Ukrainian soldiers and a separate area for injured Russian soldiers.”
Horodenskyi detailed a horrifying account of his nearly three weeks in the Russian military hospital. Russian troops staying in the hospital who could move on their own were allowed access to the open room where wounded Ukrainian soldiers were kept. They openly beat, harassed and tortured Horodenskyi and his comrades, he said.
He recalled a group of Russian troops along his bedside poking the exposed bone protruding from his right shoulder. Soldiers took turns interrogating him while grabbing the bone and twisting it, he said.
He remembers the excruciating pain.
While he was in the hospital, Horodenskyi’s condition rapidly declined, and Russian surgeons amputated what remained of his right arm. By May, he had become septic, a condition that threatens organ failure, tissue damage and death if not quickly treated.
Plagued with sepsis and with a life expectancy of no more than a week, Horodenskyi was returned to the Ukrainian military in a prisoner swap.
“The Russian commander obviously didn’t want Roman to die in their hospital because then he couldn’t be used as a bargaining chip to release one of their own,” Vengrenyuk said. “But he’s young and his body was strong enough to survive.”
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/24/ukraine-russia-war-anniversary-wounded-soldier-reflects-on-his-recovery.html