Australian volunteer soldier Casey Gadaleta lost his leg in battle but is returning to Ukraine

7NEWS

7 hours ago

EXCLUSIVE
An Australian volunteer soldier who lost his leg in the Ukraine war last year has packed his bags and a new prosthetic leg to return to the frontline again.
Casey Gadaleta, 39, left from Brisbane Airport on Sunday afternoon and is expected to cross into Ukraine on Tuesday.
The Caboolture-based former steel worker spoke with 7NEWS exclusively before his departure.
'They're good people, it's a good country and they need help,' Gadaleta said.
Gadaleta denied he'd lost his mind as well as his leg.
'Obviously, I'm not naive. I understand it's very dangerous. I don't want to die. But it's possible, very possible.'
Gadaleta had his leg ripped apart and suffered severe hand and facial injuries when he stepped on a landmine in December while on a mission with the Ukrainian Army into Kursk, deep inside Russia.
His unit was assaulting a position defended by both Russian and North Korean troops.
It's believed he's the first Australian injured inside Russian territory since the Second World War and the first Australian to have fought North Korean troops since the Korean War.
After his extraction from the war zone, he returned to Australia and has since had a state-of the-art titanium and Kevlar prosthetic leg fitted.
'I've been training, done physio, I feel I'm ready to go back,' he said.
He jokes that he's one foot shorter but one year wiser.
Gadaleta also says he is more than prepared to be injured again.
'Of course ... that's number one,' he said.
'You can't go to combat in the worst conflict of its time since World War II and not think you're going to get injured.
'Of course you're going to get injured. It just depends on how severe it is.
'It's not if, it's when.'
He denied his motivation was revenge for the loss of his leg.
'I don't think it's about revenge. I'm not a vengeful person,' he said.
'It's about combat.'
Gadaleta decided to volunteer for Ukraine early last year after reading reports of what he called 'Russia's war crimes on innocent civilians'.
Return to the trenches
He had no previous military experience and was given intensive training by the Ukrainian Armed Forces before spending six months on the battlefield.
He says that time in combat will make him an asset for the battered country.
He is confident they will take him back into a frontline role.
'Training people takes time, resources and money,' he said.
'I'm valuable based on my training and experience.
'Good people are hard to come by.
'Knowing the terrain, knowing how battle formations exist, how they operate on the battlefield and how to position men when you're in contact.
'They've told me they'll take me back.'
Gadaleta insists he is breaking no laws.
Under Australian foreign incursion laws, it is an offence to enter a foreign country with an intention to engage in hostile activity, unless serving with the armed forces of the government of that country.
Gadaleta expects to spend his first weeks in Ukraine at the world-famous 'Centre for Superhumans'.
The specialist rehab facility treats and trains military personnel who have been injured in war – especially amputees.
'They're amazing, world leaders in prosthetics,' he said. 'They obviously have a lot of experience.'
The centre has been visited by Prince Harry and received significant donations from Virgin group founder Sir Richard Branson and the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Howard G. Buffett.
Gadaleta says he wants to ensure he doesn't become a liability for any unit he's assigned to.
'Of course I'm not gonna be in a role where I get people hurt,' he said.
He doesn't know where he will be deployed once his treatment is complete, saying it could be in logistics, transport, training, drone aviation or communications.
But he wants to go back to the trenches.
'I would prefer to be in an assault role,' he said.
'A combat role, that's what I like.'
One-way ticket to Ukraine
7NEWS asked Gadaleta if he'd bought a return ticket.
'No. One way, a one-way ticket.'
Ukraine is believed to have lost at least 46,000 members of the armed forces since Russia invaded in February 2022. Thousands more are missing in action.
A further 400,000 military personnel are estimated to have been injured.
Authorities estimate that around 60 per cent of them return to service.
The war-torn nation is constantly struggling to recruit and retain personnel. Amputee soldiers are now a regular sight on the battlefield.
Gadaleta is travelling lite into the warzone – he's taking one bag, his new leg and a large jar of Vegemite.
The Ukraine veteran is also taking a new tattoo.
Inked on to his right calf are the words 'Lucky Ducky' with a picture of a gun-toting cartoon duck.
Below that, in Ukrainian, is written: 'One leg is here - and one leg is in Kursk.
Gadaleta had been serving with Ukraine's 80th Brigade when he was injured.
His call sign was 'Dundee' — after Crocodile Dundee.
He remembers December 8, 2024, as the day that changed his life.
His six-man unit was on a mission in Kursk and approaching a target through deep snow when he triggered the anti-personnel mine.
'Literally like one step and there's this bright light and I thought our guys accidentally dropped a grenade on me,' he said.
'I thought these guys just hit me by accident.
'At first, I didn't feel anything.
'Someone yelled out are you alright? and I said 'bro my leg's gone. He said what? I said bro it's gone'.'
Sustained severe injuries
A firefight began and the Russians advanced on his position. When he tried to grab his weapon, he realised his hand was in pieces.
But Gadaleta's calls for help went unanswered. He was told he had to use his medical training and fend for himself, using tourniquets to stem the bleeding.
'I'm begging them, I'm breaking down. I shouted, 'I'm gonna die, I'm gonna freeze to death. I'm bleeding so much'.'
He said he went 20 hours without first aid, or pain relief, sitting in minus 4 degrees and soaked in blood.
'I honestly thought, yeah, I'm gonna die.'
He was finally taken back into Ukraine and hospitalised in Kyiv. But he claims a three-week wait for surgery cost him his lower leg.
'My leg died, it basically turned to a black colour. They had to amputate,' he said.
He also has shrapnel in his arm and his face.
Gadaleta has a Bachelor of Science and two diplomas but made the decision to volunteer for the Ukraine Armed Forces after friends sent him photos and details of Russian war crimes.
'I was disgusted with it and I thought, how can a human being do that to another human being?'
'And I just thought, 'I want to give my life to this cause'.'
'I paid my own way here. I paid for my rent and food. I sold my investment property to cover it all.'
'I wasn't naive about it. I knew that with all the casualties it wasn't a matter of if, but when I was injured.'
He calls Russian President Vladimir Putin 'a modern-day Hitler'.
He says he was horrified when he saw the news reports from Alaska on the weekend of President Donald Trump giving Putin a red-carpet welcome.
He called it an insult to Ukraine.
'I didn't think it was real. I thought it was A.I,' he said.
'That's how crazy I thought it was.'
His dedication and sacrifice for Ukraine has already been recognised by the nation's Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko.
Myroshnychenko rang Gadaleta to offer thanks.
'For me personally, and all Ukrainian people, you're a hero,' he told him this year.
'Thank you very much.'
Seven Australians are believed to have been killed in Ukraine and the Russians have captured and imprisoned Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins.
Gadaleta knows he has put life and limb on the line already for Ukraine.
He lost the latter but has no fear of losing it all.