A soldier’s turning point

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, November 14th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: on the front lines in Ukraine.

Both Russia and Ukraine have taken heavy losses since the war started three years ago, and Ukrainians continue signing up to defend their country.

REICHARD: Thousands have returned home from the front lines with disabling injuries. Now they’re left to figure out how to reintegrate into society as the war rages on.

Here’s WORLD’s Mary Muncy with the story of one Ukrainian soldier.

MARY MUNCY: In October of 2022, 18-year-old Andriy Holopapa’s battalion took up positions in Donetsk.

HOLOPAPA: I was with my mates, and actually a lot of them was also first time on the front line, but we had very experienced command.

At the time, it was the front lines of Russia’s war with Ukraine.

HOLOPAPA: We arrived at night, so I couldn't actually see all the positions

The next day, they started looking around the post. It was in the country, a small forest was on one side but the rest was bare, less than 100 meters from the Russians. He felt very exposed.

HOLOPAPA: They had some positions, but they were very, like, very poor, I would say, so we needed, like to dig it more.

As he tried to dig past roots and frost, he thought about home.

Holopapa never wanted to join the military. After high school, he planned to do what everyone else did. He wanted to go to college and maybe become a teacher, but he felt like he was drifting.

Then, in the fall of 2021, things started to change.

HOLOPAPA: I had a lot of time to think about it, and I was thinking very hard, and like in some moment, I just understood that I see no other like, possible ways for me than just struggling in the Army, because it would be like, the only way I could like, I don't know, give a maximum effort.

He told himself he would join if there was a full-scale invasion.

HOLOPAPA: Even the week before the day of invasion. I was full, fully on the stress. I was thinking, like, it's gonna happen tomorrow, no, it's gonna happen the day after tomorrow.

When the war started, it was almost a relief. There was no more guessing.

Within a week, he was sitting at a post just outside Kyiv with a gun in his hands and without any training. He wouldn’t get any for almost six months.

When he got back from training, he moved from post to post before finally ending up on the front lines in Donetsk.

HOLOPAPA: Every day, you just waking up, you doing your job and hoping you will not die today.

At first, there wasn’t enough food and water to go around. That eventually got better but the shelling only got worse. After about a month, the Russians were firing everything but the heaviest weapons at Holopapa’s position.

For days, Holopapa only left the battle line to sleep.

HOLOPAPA: I'm thinking that okay now I will get some rest for at least three hours, and then commander says “Russians trying to attack. All to your weapons,” and you just have no other choice than to defend your position.

He did get to talk to his girlfriend and family for about five minutes everyday until the Russians brought in a signal jammer. His calls home ended abruptly.

About a week later, Holopapa was drinking coffee at his position when he heard a hiss.

HOLOPAPA: I realized that something is flying.

Then an explosion.

HOLOPAPA: I'm laying on the earth.

He couldn’t feel his legs.

HOLOPAPA: I then heard some soldier, to the right of me was screaming.

Another screamed for a tourniquet.

HOLOPAPA: And then I just like, come back to my feelings. But twice as much.

His mates put a tourniquet on each of his legs. But he was losing a lot of blood, so they put two more on, just to be sure. Then they started the almost two-mile trek to where an evacuation van waited.

HOLOPAPA: So my like battle brothers needed, to carry me about three kilometers. And from time to time, laying down because of shells, and also covering me from shells.

They made it to the medics in about 30 minutes. But they couldn’t leave until two other wounded soldiers arrived.

Then they went from a triage facility to a hospital. It was the worst pain he’d ever felt.

HOLOPAPA: It was very scary because, well, honestly, I never even thought about that. What would happen if I get injured.

When Holopapa woke up in the hospital, one leg was gone below the knee, making him one of the nearly half a million Ukrainian soldiers wounded in the war.

A week later, his parents and girlfriend visited him.

His girlfriend had him close his eyes and then handed him a ring; they got married soon afterward and Holopapa spent the next year recovering.

The war and his injury turned his life upside down, but he’s no longer drifting.

HOLOPAPA: It completely changed everything. Maybe it even like, make me some other person than I was before.

He and his wife got an apartment in Kyiv where he attends university. Most weekends, Holopapa volunteers with veterans organizations and he’s working with a military contractor.

HOLOPAPA: Now I have, I have a lot of friends in the military, in the civilians. Everything that I'm doing is, like, completely lays on what I believe in—what I want to do.

He’s not sure he can forgive the Russians for what they’ve done to his people. He says the crimes are too big to punish, but he’s not sure he would go back to his old life either.

HOLOPAPA: I'm like, liking this person more than who I was in the past.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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