Soldier Ivan Markovetskyi, call sign ASKOLD

I am from Prykarpattia, a historian by profession. It was my "propaganda" to study at the Faculty of History. My passion for world history began in the sixth grade. After reading Homer's poem The Iliad, I began to wonder about the history of Ancient Greece - I looked for books, went to the school and village libraries. At some point, it became my obsession.

But the war forced me to become a military historian. Because it's one thing to read about wars, and quite another to take up arms and fight.

I first had the intention to go to the front in 2016, when I graduated from university. But then I got injured - had several surgeries, two months of treatment, three months of rehabilitation. I still have two metal plates in my right arm. I had to forget about military service for a while, so I decided to go abroad to work.
I returned home from Poland just before the full-scale russian invasion, knowing full well that I would have to go to war. And who else but us? Who should defend our land if not Ukrainians?

On the first day of the full-scale invasion, I and my two brothers had already packed our rucksacks. And on the 25th of February, my brothers and I voluntarily joined the Ukrainian Defence Forces and joined the 75th Battalion of the 102nd Brigade of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Tank Corps.

There were no unnecessary conversations. We just called a taxi and went to the military unit. Knowing the history of Ukraine, I understood the insidiousness of the "big brother", who, like a hundred years ago, is trying to reign on the Ukrainian land. My brothers and I could not allow history to repeat itself... My brothers and I did not tell anyone about our decision to go to war, we told our families that we were volunteering.

We were trained at one of the training grounds in Prykarpattia, and a week later our company started operating in the region - guarding important strategic facilities, bridges, etc.

Our battalion went to the combat zone on the 24th of April 2022. It was the second day of the Easter holidays. A legend was invented for our relatives that our volunteer base was moving to the centre of Ukraine, that there would be a lot of work and that we would not be in touch all the time...

At first, the brigade was "introduced" to the frontline. We were mainly holding the third line of defence in the Dnipro and Donetsk regions - digging trenches and training at the same time. And we had to dig a lot. In total, we had about nine moves within two months before we got to the frontline itself. We would arrive, dig in and move on. We jokingly called ourselves "diggers".

At the end of June 2022, the brigade took over the first line of defence in the Zaporizhzhia sector. I spent almost a year fighting in Zaporizhzhia alongside my brothers.

At dawn on the 26th of April, the five of us went to an observation point, which was in vegetation 600 metres from the enemy positions. At 12:20, I heard two 80-mm mortar launches from their side. I could hear the first mine flying by, and then my eyes went dark... There was no pain. When I came to my senses, I felt myself and saw that a bone was sticking out, a tourniquet was applied, but my leg was gone. I remembered the two launches, but I did not believe that the shell had landed in my trench. There was no blood either, because I was badly burned. A certain amount of shrapnel was received by my assault rifle, in which only the silencer was left intact. The adrenaline rush was so strong that I grabbed a stick from the parapet and tried to stand up.

Then came the difficult and dangerous evacuation, as the orcs continued to fire at our positions. My comrades carried me on a stretcher for almost a kilometre to the evacuation point. When I heard our rocket launches, I felt better. I was loaded into an old off-road van and already in the vehicle I felt unbearable pain. It was as if I was in the other world - everything went white before my eyes and I only heard the pinging of the artificial lung ventilator. When I opened my eyes and saw people in white, I thought they were apostles. Fortunately, they turned out to be doctors. I was falling into the abyss again, dreaming of fighting, that my leg was sewn back... 

As it turned out, I received a high amputation of my right leg, shrapnel went up from below into my body - my intestine was torn and it pierced my lungs, a pneumothorax began, my left leg was also pierced in various places, but I did not pay attention to it at all. I felt sorry about the new uniform which was cut, because I bought it only one day earlier. 

Then I was treated at Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipro.

For seven days each, my brothers took turns being by my side - brotherly support gave me the strength to recover. In total, I underwent more than ten operations. Now I am undergoing rehabilitation, I can stand on my left leg, move with crutches and am preparing for prosthetics. 

At the end of July, during a visit to the hospital, the President of Ukraine awarded me the III class Order for Courage. 

I believe that if you have the right psychological state of mind and apply a little more effort, everything will work out. Just don't give up and don't despair. You cannot change what has happened. You have to move forward. 

And I have to get prosthetics in the future. I have a complicated amputation - a hip disarticulation. The difficulty of making such prostheses is that a person is missing 3 main joints: hip, knee and ankle. Therefore, my future prosthesis requires painstaking work by prosthetists who advise me to install a hip, knee and ankle assembly made by the German manufacturer Ottobock.

In my case, the state allocates UAH 481,869 fo this. However, this is not enough for a prosthesis that will allow me to move and lead an active life. Therefore, I need an additional payment in the amount of UAH 303,533.72, and I turned to charity.

 

COLLECTED AND TRANSFERRED: UAH 303,533.72

 

All stages of prosthetics have now been completed.

Ivan received a functional prosthesis after a hip disarticulation, providing 3rd level mobility, and is now adapting to a new life.

"I walk! Sometimes I even go for walks on my prosthesis for 6 hours or more," notes Askold.

We are sincerely grateful to everyone who joined and supported.