The price of freedom of the Ukrainian land in the story of military Vadym Mishchuk

“Defended Avdiivka”, “Held positions near Bakhmut”, “Liberated Kherson”... Behind each of these positive message from the General Staff are hundreds of Ukrainian heroes who, at the cost of their own health, and sometimes their lives, choose the freedom and independence of our country from paws of the occupiers!

Vadym Mishchuk, 33, was born in Skvira, Kyiv region. He has a charming wife and an 11-year-old son Makar. Vadym began his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine a few years before the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine.

In 2016, he joined the 72nd separate mechanized brigade named after Black Zaporozhets. Side by side with his comrades, they defended Avdiivka in 2017. For this, Vadym was awarded the Order of Courage by the President of Ukraine.

When the soldier’s contract ended in 2021, he returned home to his family. But a quiet life without rotations and short text messages to his wife with pluses instead of warm words did not last very long. After all, with the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the russian army, Vadym returned to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to protect his native land from the invaders!

Initially, Vadym’s brigade fought in the Kyiv sector, followed by the Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv sectors. When these regions were liberated from the enemy, our hero and his comrades were sent to the Donetsk region, where he was wounded and lost a limb.

The unit came under heavy enemy fire. The shell fragments shattered Vadym’s pelvis and caused numerous injuries, so his leg had to be amputated. The doctors wanted to amputate the soldier's hand as well, because it seemed that it was not functioning either. But at some point, the defender, without regaining consciousness, moved his fingers. He shares his memories of this:

“I remember hearing the doctor's voice as if in a dream, saying that they would amputate my arm as well. So I began to move my fingers with all my might so that they could see that it was working!”

The case of our hero is very complicated, because he not only has no left leg and hip joint, but also actually lacks a part of the gluteal muscles and has a permanent colostomy. It is impossible to cope with such a severe amputation in Ukraine, because we do not have special equipment for creating a prosthesis of this level. However, the leading MСOР prosthetics clinic can help our hero return to the fullest possible life! After all, it has been an official partner of the U.S. Department of Defense in prosthetics for more than 17 years, and its specialists have extensive experience in prosthetics for servicemen who lost their limbs in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

After hearing Vadym's story, the Foundation's team could not stand aside and decided to help him. However, without your support, it will be difficult for us to cope and send the hero to Washington for prosthetics.

You can join in and support Vadym on our website, in the case “Ukrainian Military Prosthetics 2023”!