“A sniper finishes me or not? I’m left as bait, not finished off,” Sviatoslav, “Donbas” Battalion

Sviatoslav Hrushevskiy (call-sign “Zoryk”) – proved a challenge to the doctors at the Ilаya Medical Company. In fact, the treatment Sviatoslav was involved the greatest innovations so far seen in the project, to treat his injury a unique 3-D matrix needed to be developed, it also involved a large number of cells and a number of surgeries to restore bone, cartilage and muscle. All funds for his treatment, which totaled 512,774 UAH were raised from donations from people like you. Finally, we can present some preliminary results with the most difficult surgeries complete. The soldier willingly give an interview to our volunteers.

Sviatoslav, you were on the front-line?

I volunteered and fought in the “Donbas” Battalion. After less than two months in the ATO zone, I was wounded during the battle for the city of Ilovaiskaya. It was our operation – an unsuccessful assault on the city executive committee, which to our knowledge was separatist headquarters. The first bullet I received in the leg, the second bullet pierced my lung, and damaged my shoulder joint. It happened on August 19 2014 and in our unit five people were wounded. The platoon leader was killed.

What was it like to be wounded?

Once I caught the second bullet, which hit my shoulder, I was left lying on my elbows. The left side of my body was paralyzed. I could neither stand nor crawl, just lie in the same place, could only move my head, right arm and legs. I actually could not even fire back, my automatic lying close by, but I could not shoot. Initially I felt so much pain that I thought an artery was affected , but a little later with my shirt wet from blood, I realized the blood flow was over.

As I lay there I thought, “a sniper finishes me or not ? I’m left as bait, not finished off”.

You are trying to save yourself?

Firstly, I was trying to breathe, not to lose consciousness. After a while I realized that it’s all over. To me, no one was going to come – everything is shot at here. I have thoughts of my son and say goodbye…

And then I hear someone on the right side of me quietly speak. I say – come quickly to me, because I am going to die from loss of blood, and the soldier says – I can’t the next bullet could be for me. I asked to have my rope thrown to me, caught it, crawled in to a ditch and lay there. When I fell into it, I was still a sitting duck – I though no one would come to me…

Then, miraculously, our boys took a “Sobol” seperatist vehicle from the snipers. A guy in my platoon got behind the wheel and tried to break through to us. He just went and the snipers went to work on it, bullets were flying…

The second guy went and sat down. At the same time, my fellow soldiers were able to get to me under heavy fire. They take away my bulletproof and try to apply a tourniquet, it was unbearably painful, but it worked for me.

I was already starting to lose consciousness, then I hear someone say, “hold on! The car’s arrived!”

The car drove past me a few meters, took the dead body of my platoon commander and another soldier from another company – in the same platoon. He was a wonderful man. It was him I was trying to pull out when I was hit by the second bullet.

So the car took the body and left. And again I thought “well, it’s all over, it definitely is”. I was losing consciousness but like in a dream I heard: “hold on, the car’s coming back!”

Later, a fellow called Gosha said, “we were stuck, you and I sat on the dead body of the platoon commander and I held your head all the way.”

Risking his life, this guys came to me. With one hand holding me, the second shooting…

Now you have passed the most difficult stage of treatment, what lies ahead?

In half a year I will have natural bone in my shoulder. In fact I will have it where it was completely absent. And now I have a chance to recover, thanks to The People’s Project. I am grateful to all the people that you help like me, allowing them to be full members of our society and start their lives anew.

Costs for the treatment of Sviatoslav have been covered, but the Bioengineering Rehabilitation for Wounded project is ongoing in collecting funds for the treatment of other men! Help us here: