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As Ukraine’s battle with Russia grinds into its fourth yr, the nation is contending with a staggering toll of wounded troopers and civilians — and an rising technology of amputees reshaping what survival seems to be like in a nation below siege.
A brand new documentary highlighting the nation’s wounded veterans screened this week on the French ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C. The movie, “Second Wind,” follows 4 amputee troopers and a feminine sniper, all severely wounded in fight, as they climb Mount Kilimanjaro — an account of grit and perseverance that comes amid one of many largest waves of war-related amputations in fashionable European historical past, and that mirrors the nation’s battle to rise out of battle.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that round 380,000 Ukrainian troops have been wounded for the reason that begin of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Worldwide medical organizations estimate that between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians — together with troopers and civilians — have undergone amputations, with the World Well being Group saying the overall quantity might method 100,000.
The size and severity of these accidents has put huge pressure on Ukraine’s medical and rehabilitation programs, with hospitals and prosthetic facilities working effectively past capability.
Filmed by Kyiv-born director Masha Kondakova, “Second Wind” paperwork the bodily and psychological rehabilitation of troopers injured by mines, artillery hearth, and drone strikes earlier than they undertook their climb up Africa’s highest peak. Kondakova, who started filming on the entrance traces of the battle in 2014, stated she wished to focus not on the battle itself however on what follows survival.
“We did not wish to make a film concerning the battle,” Kondakova stated in an interview with CBS Information on the embassy of Ukraine in Washington. “That was not the aim in any respect. It is about our easy folks, easy guys and one woman who turned heroes as a result of they’re consistently overcoming their private limits.”
“Simply take one step, and you’ll discover your second wind. Perhaps not with step one — however with the second, you’ll,” she stated.
Kondakova, who beforehand directed award-winning movies about Ukraine’s feminine troopers and de-occupied zones close to Kyiv, stated “Second Wind” completes a trilogy about resilience. “My first film was about ladies at battle at a second when ladies did not have positions within the military as fighters, after which a brief, fictional film about youth stolen by the battle,” she stated. “This third one — from the trenches within the east of Ukraine to the summit of Kilimanjaro — is concerning the resilience of our defenders. About how our scars turn into our power.”
Amongst them is Mykhailo Matviiv, a soldier who misplaced a leg to a Russian airstrike and has since returned to the entrance traces to work as a drone operator on the jap entrance. In an interview alongside Kondakova, he stated returning to the entrance was not a query of selection.
“I am unable to stay a standard life whereas my brothers are nonetheless on the entrance,” he stated, by means of translation. “The damage created some doubts as a result of I do not wish to maintain anyone again. However this expertise confirmed me I can nonetheless be useful and helpful, as if the damage weren’t there.”
Matviiv, who utilized his personal tourniquet when he was wounded, stated he had witnessed enemy forces deliberately goal one soldier to be able to appeal to medics or evacuation groups, solely to then strike an even bigger group.
He added that the movie’s function was to not search pity however to inspire. “It is to indicate that life does not finish with an damage,” he stated. “You simply climb your individual private summit, step-by-step.”
The documentary has already been proven in Ukrainian navy hospitals, the place Kondakova remembers one of the crucial emotional moments of her profession.
“We have been downstairs in a high secret [bunker] as a result of in any other case we could possibly be a goal,” she stated. “I used to be sitting behind one in all our defenders, very younger, who had simply had this expertise of amputation however no prosthesis but.”
“Folks have been crying or so emotional,” she stated, “I had a sense they have been with [the film’s subjects] for every joke, they laughed as in the event that they have been collectively.”
Ukraine’s newly appointed ambassador to the USA, Olha Stefanishyna, stated on the screening in Washington that the movie was an essential reminder for People particularly of the worth of continued U.S. assist for Ukrainian troopers.
“It is extremely essential to me that People can see what the true spirit of freedom is, and why their assist issues,” Stefanishyna stated. “This movie exhibits that our Ukrainians — regardless of shedding their legs — continued to struggle, they usually carried that spirit to the highest of Kilimanjaro.”
The movie arrives as Ukraine faces a long-term rehabilitation disaster. The Ministry of Well being has stated demand for prosthetics, significantly bionic limbs, has gone up sharply for the reason that begin of the battle. Medical amenities similar to Superhumans Heart in Lviv — one of many nation’s most superior prosthetics amenities — are working at full capability, whereas hundreds of troopers stay on ready lists.
Kondakova and her staff have since launched The Second Wind Venture, a company designed to attach amputees by means of sports activities and peer assist. “We wish each wounded soldier to really feel the shoulder of a brother-in-arms,” she stated.
She stated she hopes “Second Wind” may assist increase consciousness amongst policymakers and potential donors. “The method of prosthetics and rehabilitation is lengthy and costly,” she stated. “We’d like not solely cash, however experience — veterans, docs, specialists who can share expertise.”
For Matviiv, who stated after the movie’s U.S. screenings he’ll return once more to the entrance close to Pokrovsk, the place among the most intense combating of the battle continues, the message is easy. “We’re nonetheless combating,” he stated. “Any limitations that we now have, we preserve going and we preserve defending.”
“Second Wind” continues a global tour this month, with screenings scheduled in New York, London, and Paris.
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