From Military.com:
“Ukrainian Soldiers Who Were Blinded in Combat Face the New
Battle of Navigating the World Again”
(Ivan Soroka, a 27-year-old former Ukrainian soldier blinded
in the war, sits for a photo in his room at a rehabilitation center designed
for soldiers who lost their vision on the battlefield, near Rivne, Ukraine,
Friday, July 21, 2023.)
Along a bustling street in a western Ukrainian city, Denys
Abdulin takes his first independent strides since he was severely wounded and
blinded while fighting invading Russian troops more than a year ago. The
34-year-old former soldier, wearing black glasses and gripping a white mobility
cane, steps onto a more crowded stretch of sidewalk. His movements become
tentative and tense. He accidentally blocks the path of a woman approaching an
ATM to withdraw cash. Like many other pedestrians, she responds with a
compassionate smile and gracefully moves aside. Gradually, Abdulin covers 600
meters (almost 3/10 of a mile), guided by a trainer walking ahead of him with a
bracelet of small metal bells.
Five other Ukrainian military veterans conquered similar
challenges while attending a rehabilitation camp for ex-soldiers who lost their
vision in combat. Over several weeks, the men would learn to navigate the city
of Rivne, to prepare their own meals and to use public transportation while
traveling solo. Daily tasks they previously performed without thinking now
demand focus, strength and dedication. “Everyone pays their price for freedom
in Ukraine,” Abdulin, who spent months confined to a hospital bed and rarely
takes off his dark shades, said.
The war Russia launched in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 has
killed tens of thousands of fighters on both sides. Countless others, both
Ukrainian military personnel and civilians who took up arms to defend their
country, have been maimed or suffered other injuries that irreversibly reshaped
their lives.
No statistics currently exist for how many service members
have lost their sight due to severe wounds sustained in the war, according to
Olesia Perepechenko, executive director of Modern Sight, the non-governmental
organization that puts on the camp. But demand for the program is growing as
the war nears its year and a half point. Over the course of several weeks, the
veterans, accompanied by their families, reside at a rehabilitation center
outside of Rivne. Most receive their first canes here, take their first walks
around urban and natural environments without assistance, and learn to operate
sound-based programs for using cellphones and computers. “Our goal isn’t to
retrain them, not to change them, but simply to give them a chance to become
independent and self-reliant,” Perepechenko, who is herself blind, said.
Abdulin voluntarily joined the military when Russia invaded
Ukraine nearly 18 months ago. Completing the 600-meter walk marked a new phase
in his recovery following the wounds he sustained when a mine detonated a few
meters (yards) behind him in Sieverodontesk, a city in eastern Ukraine now
occupied by Russians. “It seemed to me that a flame flew out of my eyes,” he
said of that day in May 2022. "I immediately realized that I had lost my
eyes.” “Of course, I expected everything, but becoming blind, I couldn’t even
imagine,” Abdulin continued. “I thought that I could lose an arm or a leg, and
I didn’t want to die at all. I never even thought that I would become blind.
Therefore, at first, it was very difficult”.
In 2014, when Russia unlawfully annexed Crimea and armed
conflict erupted in Ukraine’s Donbas region, Perepechenko yearned to be on the
front lines helping in some way. Her request to join the army was declined, so
she decided to embrace a new mission: helping soldiers who lost their sight to
reclaim a sense of autonomy.
Modern Sight held its first rehabilitation camp in 2019 and
organized around 10 more since then. However, only two camps have taken place
during the war. Although there is a waiting list of 30 people for the next
session, the non-profit’s primary hurdle is funding: each camp costs about
15,000 euros ($16,400) to put on.
Abdulin spent almost a year receiving treatment for his injuries,
which included a shattered jaw from the shrapnel that also stole his vision and
left him with breathing and balance problems. His wife, Olesia Abdulina,
returned with their two children from Lithuania, where the three of them sought
refuge after Russia's full-scale invasion. “His eyes were still so swollen,
with bandages over them, covered in cotton pads,” Abdulina said of seeing her
husband at the hospital for the first time after their months of separation. “The
main thing is that you’re alive,” she said she responded when he told her he
would never see again. During the months after that, she fed him with a spoon
and rarely left his side. At the Modern Sight camp, the two of them were
learning how to integrate his impairment into their family life.
While Denys attended physiotherapy or cooking classes,
Abdulina and other women with husbands or boyfriends in the program go through
their own training exercises. One purpose of the camp is reminding the spouses
they are not “nannies” but life partners to their men, Perepechenko said. During
one such session, Abdulina is blindfolded and given a long cane. She
tentatively probes the floor while another participant holds her hand. The
purpose of the exercise is to help the women better understand what their
partners experience and need. “We remain the same people. We have the same
capabilities,” Ivan Soroka, 27, who joined the Ukrainian army on the day Russia
invaded and was attending the camp for a second time. “We need to stand up,
take control and work on improving ourself.” A projectile wounded Soroka near
Bakhmut in August 2022, when the longest battle of the war so far was just
beginning. Russian forces ended up taking the city in eastern Ukraine in May
after more than eight months of intense combat. “I lost my sight immediately, thrown
by the blast wave. I felt that I was dying,” Soroka said. “I lay there for
about two minutes. Then I realized that no, someone isn’t letting me go there.”
As he recalls those moments, he implies it was his fiancee, Vlada, now sitting
beside him, who kept him alive. The couple met when Soroka was participating in
the defense of the Kyiv region in the spring of last year. Their love blossomed
swiftly against the backdrop of war. Prior to Soroka's summer deployment to the
Donetsk region, he proposed to Vlada. She agreed to marry him. But soon after,
the two were spending days and nights in a hospital instead of preparing for a
wedding. The happy occasion that was postponed because of Soroka's injury is
now planned for early September; after months of rehabilitation, he feels both
physically and psychologically strong. “I’ve realized that unless I rise on my
own and start doing something, nothing will change,” he said.
The men and their partners spend camp breaks and evenings in
a gazebo on the rehabilitation center’s grounds. An atmosphere of tranquility
prevails, occasionally interrupted by hearty laughter and jokes from their time
as soldiers. By the time they leave the center, the men will know they have the
tools to get around a city and gained something equally vital - a sense of
community forged through shared experiences and a common trauma. One evening,
when the day's activities were completed, the camp participants gathered in a
courtyard to celebrate Oleksandr Zhylchenko’s birthday. He lost his sight late
last year, though did not share details about the circumstances. “I’m drawing
you into a circle, into your family’s circle. There are about 50 of us here,”
Perepechenko said, handing Zhylchenko a heart-shaped balloon in the yellow and
blue of Ukraine's national flag. “This is our collective heart." The
trainers and trainees stood in a circle and, one by one, shared their birthday
wishes for the man of the moment. Careless days. A bright future. Patience,
confidence, faithfulness. A peaceful sky. The final wish was for “victory for
all of us and for Ukraine.” Moved, Zhylchenko held the balloon a moment longer,
silently conjuring his own wish. Then, he released it, without seeing it
swiftly ascend into the sky.
^ This is extremely hard to read about – but of course it is necessary
to read and see how the War is affecting everyone in Ukraine. I can’t imagine
what it must be like to be blind and have to learn how to survive in a world
that doesn’t really cater to the Blind. Everyone of these People (the Soldiers
who are Blind and their Loved Ones) have my deepest respect. ^
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