Latest news with #Maksym
New Straits Times
15-05-2025
- Health
- New Straits Times
In US hospital, maimed Ukrainian soldiers bear war's terrible cost
RUSSIA'S war in Ukraine left Oleksandr Vikhruk without both arms and his right leg. Maksym Radiuk lost his left arm, his eyesight and was badly burned. Now, through pain and sweat, Oleksandr, 45, works with US doctors to one day go fishing using prosthetic limbs. Maksym, 23, hopes the treatment will make him fit to join Ukraine's national football team for the blind. As the world awaits what promises to be the first direct negotiations Thursday in Turkiye between Moscow and Kyiv since the early months of the Russian invasion in 2022, the two badly injured Ukrainian soldiers being treated at an elite US military hospital outside Washington embody the tremendous cost of the war for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian servicemen and their families. "It's very painful, very scary to see your husband maimed," Oleksandr's wife Olha, 50, said, choking back tears. "I couldn't speak without tears. I couldn't live. For three months, I didn't speak to almost anybody, except the kids." She added: "It's a terrible, horrible war. I cannot describe it." Oleksandr was wounded in March 2023, when his infantry unit was ambushed by Russian drones in the eastern Donetsk region. Gravely wounded, Oleksandr applied tourniquets to his arms and leg, but had to wait 10 hours to get medical help because the evacuation route was under attack by Russian forces. "When I was in a lot of pain, I simply thought about something pleasant: my home, my wife, my children," Oleksandr, wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt and sitting in a wheelchair in the office of United Help Ukraine, a charity that covered the families' non-medical expenses during treatment. As hours passed, Oleksandr's body started shivering violently and he thought back to the time when he visited Marseille in southern France. "I imagined the sea and I started feeling warm. I plunged into my dreams, that's how I was able to endure it," Oleksandr said in a weak voice, his eyes reflecting the traumatic memories. When he was finally taken to hospital, his arms and leg had to be amputated and he spent 2.5 months in a medical coma. Later, he also suffered a cardiac arrest and a stroke – doctors said it was a miracle he survived. Olha was devastated, but eventually seeing how Oleksandr's eyes would light up when he saw her entering his intensive care unit gave her strength. "You begin to get used to this pain, to the idea that you must go on living, that life continues," said Olha, a soft-spoken brunette, also clad in a Ukrainian shirt. "We fought together," she added. "I would tell him, Sasha, you will live, I believe in you, we are together, we will get through this. And we did." In April 2024, Maksym's territorial defence unit was serving in the southern Kherson region, when a Russian drone exploded near his face. It destroyed his right eye, blew off his left arm and several fingers and set him on fire. Because of the shock, Maksym initially didn't feel any pain as he waited to be evacuated, but his legs were so badly burnt that it felt like he was wearing shorts. "I completely dissociated and just sat and waited and didn't think about anything," Maksym recalled, wearing sunglasses and sitting in a wheelchair. Maksym spent one and a half months in a medically induced coma after doctors amputated the remains of his arm. His wounds were so severe that his mother Natalia, 40, herself a servicewoman, was told that Maksym was unlikely to survive. When Maksym finally came to, he couldn't see. "He woke up and he asked me: how many eyes? I told him: one," said Natalia, adding that initially there was hope to save his left eye. "How many arms? I said: one. And legs? I said: two." Natalia, who brims with energy, said she only allowed herself a couple of hours to cry. "I decided that I will not help my child this way, that I need to pull myself together and move forward, forward, forward," she recalled. "I will do everything so that he can return to normal life and he will show people with arms and legs and eyes what he can do." The soldiers are scheduled to spend six months to a year at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as part of a treatment plan paid for by the US Department of Defense. Both should receive bionic limbs, and doctors have also offered to transplant one of Maxym's toes onto his right hand. "I am very grateful that we were welcomed here in America, in this superb hospital, by superb professionals. They are great, they treat our guys very well, they treat them as heroes," said Natalia. But with the talks scheduled in Turkiye, the families hold out little hope for any fair and lasting peace deal with Moscow and called on the international community to do more to support Ukraine. "Everybody must rise up and scream that this war needs to be stopped," she added.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
In US hospital, maimed Ukrainian soldiers bear war's terrible cost
Russia's war in Ukraine left Oleksandr Vikhruk without both arms and his right leg. Maksym Radiuk lost his left arm, his eyesight and was badly burned. Now, through pain and sweat, Oleksandr, 45, works with US doctors to one day go fishing using prosthetic limbs. Maksym, 23, hopes the treatment will make him fit to join Ukraine's national football team for the blind. As the world awaits what promises to be the first direct negotiations Thursday in Turkey between Moscow and Kyiv since the early months of the Russian invasion in 2022, the two badly injured Ukrainian soldiers being treated at an elite US military hospital outside Washington embody the tremendous cost of the war for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian servicemen and their families. "It's very painful, very scary to see your husband maimed," Oleksandr's wife Olha, 50, said, choking back tears. "I couldn't speak without tears. I couldn't live. For three months, I didn't speak to almost anybody, except the kids." She added: "It's a terrible, horrible war. I cannot describe it." - 'I imagined the sea' - Oleksandr was wounded in March 2023, when his infantry unit was ambushed by Russian drones in the eastern Donetsk region. Gravely wounded, Oleksandr applied tourniquets to his arms and leg, but had to wait 10 hours to get medical help because the evacuation route was under attack by Russian forces. "When I was in a lot of pain, I simply thought about something pleasant: my home, my wife, my children," Oleksandr, wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt and sitting in a wheelchair in the office of United Help Ukraine, a charity that covered the families' non-medical expenses during treatment. As hours passed, Oleksandr's body started shivering violently and he thought back to the time when he visited Marseille in southern France. "I imagined the sea and I started feeling warm. I plunged into my dreams, that's how I was able to endure it," Oleksandr said in a weak voice, his eyes reflecting the traumatic memories. When he was finally taken to hospital, his arms and leg had to be amputated and he spent 2.5 months in a medical coma. Later, he also suffered a cardiac arrest and a stroke -- doctors said it was a miracle he survived. Olha was devastated, but eventually seeing how Oleksandr's eyes would light up when he saw her entering his intensive care unit gave her strength. "You begin to get used to this pain, to the idea that you must go on living, that life continues," said Olha, a soft-spoken brunette, also clad in a Ukrainian shirt. "We fought together," she added. "I would tell him, Sasha, you will live, I believe in you, we are together, we will get through this. And we did." - One eye, one arm - In April 2024, Maksym's territorial defense unit was serving in the southern Kherson region, when a Russian drone exploded near his face. It destroyed his right eye, blew off his left arm and several fingers and set him on fire. Because of the shock, Maksym initially didn't feel any pain as he waited to be evacuated, but his legs were so badly burnt that it felt like he was wearing shorts. "I completely dissociated and just sat and waited and didn't think about anything," Maksym recalled, wearing sunglasses and sitting in a wheelchair. Maksym spent one and a half months in a medically induced coma after doctors amputated the remains of his arm. His wounds were so severe that his mother Natalia, 40, herself a servicewoman, was told that Maksym was unlikely to survive. When Maksym finally came to, he couldn't see. "He woke up and he asked me: how many eyes? I told him: one," said Natalia, adding that initially there was hope to save his left eye. "How many arms? I said: one. And legs? I said: two." Natalia, who brims with energy, said she only allowed herself a couple of hours to cry. "I decided that I will not help my child this way, that I need to pull myself together and move forward, forward, forward," she recalled. "I will do everything so that he can return to normal life and he will show people with arms and legs and eyes what he can do." - 'Rise up and scream' - The soldiers are scheduled to spend six months to a year at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as part of a treatment plan paid for by the US Department of Defense. Both should receive bionic limbs, and doctors have also offered to transplant one of Maxym's toes onto his right hand. "I am very grateful that we were welcomed here in America, in this superb hospital, by superb professionals. They are great, they treat our guys very well, they treat them as heroes," said Natalia. But with the talks scheduled in Turkey, the families hold out little hope for any fair and lasting peace deal with Moscow and called on the international community to do more to support Ukraine. "Everybody must rise up and scream that this war needs to be stopped," she added. md/sms
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Actor, Maksym Kovtun, killed on front line defending Ukraine
Actor-turned-soldier Maksym Kovtun was killed on the front line, the Dnipro Academic Youth Theater said on May 2. "Maksym went to the front to protect our country, our freedom, and our future," the theater in a post to social media. Kovtun was a member of the youth theater before he began serving in the . "Maksym Kovtun died defending . His roles — bright, sincere, full of warmth — will forever remain in our hearts. He played for children and adults, giving joy, laughter, and deep emotions," the theater said. "Our entire theater team, colleagues, and friends express their deepest condolences to Maksym's family, his loved ones, and everyone who was by Maksym's side in life," the theater said. More than 45,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of Russia's full-scale war in 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in February. Ukraine the bodies of 909 soldiers killed in Russia's war, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs announced on April 18. Many have abandoned their careers to defend on the front line as Russia continues to wage its war against Ukraine. , a former cameraman and editor who joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was killed fighting in Russia's Kursk Oblast on March 13, his mother said on March 20. Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia attacks Kharkiv with drones, injuring at least 40 We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Yahoo
National Guardsman rescues 3-year-old girl and her parents from under rubble in Kyiv
Following a Russian missile strike on Kyiv on 24 April, Ukrainian soldiers joined the efforts to clear the rubble of a destroyed building. Maksym Timoshko, a soldier from one of the units of the Northern Operational Territorial Grouping of the National Guard of Ukraine, rescued a three-year-old girl, her parents and their dog from under the rubble. Source: National Guard on Facebook Quote from Maksym: "First, I took the child. I handed her over to a comrade and went back for the adults. The man was seriously wounded, so I carried him straight to the ambulance and then returned for the woman and the dog. It was difficult to reach them – I had to break down the door and act very quickly. Every second could have been the last." Details: After the rescue, the family was evacuated from the scene of the strike and handed over to medical personnel. Background: During the large-scale missile attack on Kyiv on the night of 23-24 April, one of the Russian missiles struck a residential building in the Sviatoshynskyi district of Kyiv. Twelve people were killed and 87 injured. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ukrainian wrestling twins need father to get green card to keep Olympic dream alive
The wrestling room is a safe haven for Yevhen Pylypenko and his sons, Dmytro and Maksym Chubenko. It is there, sparring on the mat, where the Ukrainians can escape the political pressure that threatens to disrupt their hopes and dreams. On the mat, there is no need to obtain a green card or to worry that without permanent resident status it is possible the family, which also includes Yevhen's wife, Maryna, and daughter Polina, could be forced to return to Ukraine, the war-torn eastern European nation from which they first fled in the spring of 2022, after Russia invaded. They spent nine months in Croatia before bumping into the director of an Ohio wrestling club who was touring the country with some of his athletes. Twin brothers Maksym and Dmytro Chubenko of Dnipro, Ukraine, hold their old sister, Polina Pylypenko, before a 2023 wrestling practice at Gahanna Lincoln High School. Brian Church, director of Columbus Wrestling Club, convinced the family to take advantage of the U.S. pathway program for Ukrainian refugees. He invited them to live with him in Worthington, a Columbus suburb, they accepted the offer, and two years later, they still live with Church. But their refugee status has ended, which means the only way they can remain in Columbus long-term is to get the green card, which would allow them to live and work here permanently. Twin wrestlers Dmytro Chubenko (left) and Maksym Chubenko spar. They have long wanted to wrestle in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. While their English has greatly improved since they arrived in the US, their chances to represent the United States in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2028 Games have not. And there is not much they can do about it, except continue to excel at their sport, which they see as a way to show they are contributing to U.S. society. Advertisement 'We have to go hard at everything. We need to be perfect,' Maksym said a few weeks ago before he, his brother and father left for the U.S. Olympic training camp in Colorado Springs, where they were invited to work out by U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman coach Herb House. If the twins must walk the straight and narrow line, noting that being on their best behavior on and off the mat can only help show that the family is worthy of remaining in the States, then the line their father must toe is even thinner. After all, he is the one who must obtain the green card. 'They want to show they're not the kind of people you don't want in this country,' said Church, adding that Yevhen is an excellent coach who helps train Olympic hopefuls – he helped prepare the USA Under-20 team for the 2024 World Championships – and his sons are gifted wrestlers. The 19-year-old twins each placed at the prestigious Fargo National Championship in 2024, Dmytro at 138 pounds and Maksym at 144. Maksym and Dmytro Chubenko play soccer with their sister, Polina Pylypenko, before a 2023 wrestling practice. Greco-Roman wrestling in U.S. remains outside looking in Off the mat, father and sons want to turn America into a Greco-Roman wrestling nation, which is a tall mountain to climb considering the majority of U.S. high school and college wrestling is folk style. (Greco-Roman differs from folk/freestyle mostly in that it does not allow holds below the waist). Advertisement Talking to the twins offers a study in a type of seriousness – painting with a broad brush here – uncommon to high school students. The seniors at Worthington Kilbourne High School are single-minded in their quest to excel at their craft. Not that they cannot have fun, but there is a soberness, accompanied by a hint of sadness, that permeates their persona. And no wonder, when the threat of deportation hovers like a guillotine. 'We are always thinking about it, concerned about it,' Dmytro said. From left: Maksym and Dmytro Chubenko with their father Yevhen Pylypenko at All in One Sports Center in Columbus, Ohio. The family has had to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable, because the process of obtaining a green card is both costly (legal fees) and lengthy, with no guarantee of a positive outcome. And the thought of returning to Ukraine? Well, as best they can, the twins try not to think about it. Advertisement Instead, they work. And work. And work. Father. Mother. Sons. They make a living delivering food for DoorDash, cutting down on life expenses by living with Church, who is single. Yevhen volunteers at Columbus Wrestling Club, training young wrestlers from across central Ohio, and planned this month to begin working with the Athletes in Action wrestling team. He is doing his best to prove his worth as a model citizen and positive contributor to U.S. sports. Much is at stake. The twins cannot leave the country without Yevhen obtaining his green card, which means no international competition, which means no shot at making the 2028 Olympic team. Failing to obtain green card brings negative consequences 'They're kind of stuck,' Church said. 'They can't compete for spots on the U.S. team because they don't hold passports, and (U.S. wrestling) doesn't want them coming and competing and beating people when they can't travel (internationally).' Advertisement In addition, what college wants to give scholarships to wrestlers who could get deported in the middle of a season? 'It's a problem,' Church said. 'Because if they end up having to go back (to Ukraine), now you're dealing with, 'Hey, you left. We are not going to do anything for you.' They have no place to live. It would be really bad as far as a living situation.' Maksym (left) and Dmytro Chubenko How valuable to the national greater good must a person be to make a strong case that he or she deserves to remain in the United States? That is the unknown weighing upon Yevhen and his family. 'These past couple months, they're all working almost 12 hours a day,' Church said. Advertisement It is hard to predict how the story ends. Several U.S. Olympic coaches have written letters in support of Yevhen, pointing out his importance to the team. But letters of support are common among those seeking green cards. Yevhen's heart is in the right place. 'I want to help the state of Ohio,' he said, explaining how the state has 'many sportsmen,' which is an international term for athletes. The proud father, like his sons, tries to remain positive, even as uncertainty swirls. 'It's difficult,' Yevhen said. 'All you can do is keep doing what you are doing today.' Keep working. Keep hoping. Keep the faith. Reach Rob Oller at roller@ or on X @rollerCD. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ukrainian twins need dad to get green card so they can keep competing
