• Vladyslav is running out of patience.
• The 29-year-old is a patient at the Lviv hospital.
• He is boiling with resentment over his inability to return to the front.

Vladyslav is running out of patience. The 29-year-old has been a patient at the Lviv hospital in western Ukraine for six months. His arms can only be moved slowly, his legs are paralyzed, and he is boiling with resentment over his inability to return to the front.

He exclaims exasperatedly, “Imagine, I’ve been here since March and I can’t walk.

Vladyslav cuts an impressive figure, even though he is reclining on a couch for his physical therapy session. He is affable and full of jokes.

“Everyone believes that you can prepare for conflict, but this is not how it works. Simply do it. You simply act, he advises.

Vladyslav*, a tank driver who has been serving in the Ukrainian military since 2009, was gravely injured on March 2 in Chernihiv, Ukraine. They tried to completely destroy Chernihiv after failing to conquer it, Vladyslav claims.

He sustained severe brain trauma when a missile struck the tank he was in. Multiple bits of shrapnel were removed from his head by the medical professionals who hurried to save his life.

Vladyslav’s left leg jerks sporadically as he speaks, a somber reminder of the severe harm done to his nervous system. Later, he was moved to a Lviv hospital that sees a lot of military patients.

There is a hint of rage in Vladyslav’s desperation to go back with his friends. He was raised and born in Luhansk. His family fled to Severodonetsk in the northwest in 2014 as pro-Russian turmoil spread throughout the Donbas (the collective name for the areas of Luhansk and Donetsk). Separatists “seized our apartment,” he claims.

His family was compelled to flee Severodonetsk on February 24 as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion and seek safety in Kyiv.

Vladyslav claims it would be unimaginable for him to abandon the war effort after spending months in the hospital. He chuckles, “Of course I want to go back to the front line. “I drive a tank pretty well. I was not raised the way some people choose to flee the nation and not fight for it.
soldier healing is rushed

As the battle approaches the end of its sixth month, the accounts of wounded troops like Vladyslav offer a picture of the devastating repercussions of protracted combat as injuries and deaths rise sharply amid widespread weariness.

Hospitals in the comparatively safe western Ukraine are having difficulty caring for hundreds of soldiers like Vladyslav. Many of these soldiers have catastrophic wounds and are not yet emotionally or physically capable of returning to the front lines, although having a strong need to do so.

Medical professionals are working quickly to recover those who will eventually re-enter combat.

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