In April of this year, we completed a collection of 2,000,000 hryvnias for the rehabilitation of the wounded who took and continue to take part in the defense of our state from Russian aggression. We would like to tell more personalized stories so that you understand that behind every number in the statistics, behind every photo without a description, there is a person just like you. With their own story, emotions, and experiences.
Meet me, this is Mykyta. A warrior, a veteran, a person with a disability. Next, direct speech.
“I’m originally from Stakhanov, my home has been occupied since 2014, after the occupation I moved to Odessa, worked there for a while, was engaged in public and political activities, and later went to serve.
My military journey began in 2016, on December 1, 2016, I first went to ground zero, where I saw my first death, my first arrivals, and a lot of things I learned in military affairs.
It was service in the 54th Motorized Rifle Brigade, from 2016 to 2019 I was on rotations in Donbas in different places, once I was quite close to my occupied city, in clear weather you could even see the 9th floor of my house in the distance, somewhere far away but none the less. In 2019 my contract ended and I returned to service several times with short breaks. I signed a contract for six months when the unit was in the ATO/JFO zone.
I served in the 54th Motorized Rifle Brigade, once in the 72nd Motorized Rifle Brigade. In 2021, when one of my contracts ended, I began to think about whether I should either build a professional career and become an officer, or remain in civilian life. While I was thinking, a full-scale invasion began and I immediately went to a unit that was not far from Odessa, so I ended up in the 35th Motorized Rifle Brigade and became a marine.
I participated in the battles for the south, later with blood and sweat we drove the Podarys beyond the Dnieper and liberated a significant part of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Then I ended up in Donbas again, and during one of the missions in the VOP, a mine flew right under my feet, my comrades saved me and evacuated me.
After being injured, I regained consciousness in intensive care in Dnipro with “An amputated limb. What followed was a long journey of treatment, a lot of support from loved ones, loved ones and friends, and a lot of pain.”
The second hero of this text is Rodion Myroshnichenko.
Rodion joined the army in 2016, his main role model was his military father. The guy served in the 95th ODShBr, where he played in the orchestra. Music was one of his main hobbies, Rodion mastered many instruments on his own.
In 2020, he and his father transferred to the 42nd Separate Motorized Infantry Battalion, where they became a scout. The family met the beginning of the full-scale war in the Luhansk region, where father and son immediately took on the first battles.
During the fierce fighting near Bakhmut, Rodion was seriously injured: a fragment hit his neck and lodged in the right lobe of his brain. The father, having learned about his son’s injury, searched for him in hospitals for a long time. Only thanks to the skill of the surgeons of the Dnieper Mechnikov Hospital was Rodion saved. He fought for his life for another week, being in a coma.
Having regained consciousness in Vinnytsia, our hero finally saw his loved ones, but he could not speak. From that moment on, the long and difficult path of the warrior’s recovery began.
At the beginning of the summer, Rodion entered the NextStep Ukraine rehabilitation center in Irpen and immediately impressed with his sincerity and perseverance. Despite a serious injury and speech impairment, the soldier did not give up and made every effort to improve his results every day.
Rodion is an example of the indomitable will and iron motivation of a true warrior. We, together with the NextStep Ukraine team, are proud to be able to help the indomitable Defenders of Ukraine recover!
