Soldier Serhii Pandrak, call sign SYVYI

At the end of July 2014, me and my guys (there were 18 of us) arrived at the headquarters of AIDAR unit in Polovinkino settlement, Luhansk region, and registered, received weapons and immediately left for Shchastia. And at four in the morning, we moved to Luhansk in a company, with the company commander ZOLA (Ihor Lapin), in a marching column. 

We knocked the enemy out of two settlements - Vergunka Mala and Vergunka Velyka in Krasnyi Iar - and established a defence. 

The fighting lasted for five days! 

We lost nine comrades and twelve were wounded!

Then we returned to Shchastia. We tended to our wounds, replenished our ammunition and on the 12th of August moved to the Luhansk airport. There, paratroopers from the 80th Brigade had been holding a circular defence since May the 14th. We broke through the encirclement, giving the paratroopers a green light, and liberated two settlements in one go - Novosvitlivka and Heorhiivka. We spent the night there, and in the morning we attacked the enemy in the village of Khriashchuvate (4 km to Luhansk and 25 km to the russian border). We knocked them out and took up defence.

They started shelling us with mines from Luhansk direction, and with rockets from the russian side! At six in the evening on the 13th of August, a piece of a 122 mm mortar mine hit me. The mine hit a reinforced concrete electric power pole and split, hitting me right in the knee. I fell on my back, clutching the assault rifle in my hand. Blood started gushing from my femoral artery, and I could see the broken femur. 

My comrades who were lying/sitting in the trench were numb from what they saw!

I shouted: ‘Why are you sitting there, tie up my leg!’ A fellow soldier from Volyn RUSIK jumped up, quickly unwound a rubber simple medical tourniquet from the stock of his AK and tied my left leg above the wound to stop the critical bleeding. We didn't have tourniquets at the time. A fellow soldier from Volyn, a captain with the call sign LEO, injected me with an American anti-shock drug that volunteers from Volyn had brought to us the day before!

Then my comrades carried me on a tarpaulin to a military vehicle - a ‘loafbread’ vehicle, where two of our combat medics were waiting: Andrii PLOKHISH and Lada Vedenska. Andrii immediately applied a professional tourniquet, because the simple tourniquet did not completely stop the blood, and injected me with another anti-shock (as he called it ‘torpedo’). LEO did not mention to him that he had already injected me with one! 

I could have died from two ‘torpedoes’ in a row...

Then the ‘loaf’ vehicle ‘rushed’ at a speed of 40 km along the terricone roads to the Luhansk airport, where our field hospital arrived that very day. While I was being transported for 1.5-2 hours, our ‘loaf’ was shelled three times from the vegetation areas from a grenade launcher.

Luckily for us, we were not hit!

At about 20 hours, they brought me and took me down to the Luhansk airport bunker. The military doctors looked at me... and put me aside as ‘not a promising case’ and started to work with four younger wounded. Around midnight, the military doctors saw that I was still breathing and took me for surgery. As their medical vehicles were hit by grenades as soon as they arrived at the airport, all their medical equipment burned down, and the commander of the field hospital, Colonel Iurii Skurativskyi, decided to cut off my mine-broken femur and soft parts of my leg with an AK-47 bayonet-knife...

It was a UNIQUE operation (described by a lieutenant colonel, a military medic from Chernivtsi, Valerii Pasternak, alias ZHYVAGO, who operated on me with a bayonet knife in a bunker, giving an interview to CENSOR NET), which no one had ever done before.

Then, my fellow soldier Andrii PLOKHISH and the paratrooper captain of the 80th Brigade, Volodymyr ROMASHKO, gave me their blood directly, saving my life.

Now they are my blood brothers!

After the operation, I fell into a coma. At night, me and the other wounded were evacuated in an URAL truck to Lutyhine town and taken by helicopter to the Antonov site in Kharkiv. An ambulance was already waiting there. When they brought me into it and put electronic equipment on me, it showed nothing. That is, I was delivered to Kharkiv as cargo 200s (meaning dead). But the head of the intensive care unit of the Kharkiv Military Hospital, Colonel Valerii Bondarenko, gave the order to nurse Snizhana to take my blood pressure with a mechanical tonometer. And she, having a very good ear for music, measured my blood pressure: 40 over 60.

And then they started resuscitation...

I was taken to the intensive care unit of the hospital at 10.30 a.m., and at 16.20, on the 14th of August, on the holiday of Makovii, I came out of a coma....

My wife was already rushing to me in Kharkiv from Rivne... Neither she nor my family knew that I had gone to war and was fighting in AIDAR unit!

In the hospital I underwent a second operation... After 5 days, I was flown from Kharkiv to the central military hospital in Kyiv. There, a professor from Donetsk, V. Borzykh, performed my third and fourth operations!

The entire time I was in the Central Military Hospital for 2.5 months, my beloved wife was by my side, supporting me morally and physically. I was also supported by my son Andrii, daughter Iuliia, grandchildren Artem and Mariia, relatives, close people, friends, comrades-in-arms, Kyiv residents who constantly visited us, seriously wounded soldiers, from morning to night. My guys, for whom I was a commander, found out that I was a captain only after I was wounded... 

By profession, I am a mechanical engineer, a war veteran - a disabled veteran of the 2nd group. Now I am a teacher of military affairs, specialising in the Defence of Ukraine, at the Rivne Agricultural College. I have five grandchildren so far: three boys and two girls...

The loss of my leg did not change my life in any way. I always say that I did not lose my leg, I gave it away. On the command of the commander-in-chief - God. In terms of energy, I can feel my leg. But there are certain limitations in movement. Before the injury, I was actively involved in sports. The amputation did not make me give it up.

In 2016, I climbed Hoverla mountain for the first time after being injured. It was my 54th ascent of Hoverla. I climbed to the top for the first time when I was five years old. Since then, I have made fifty ascents. I can climb and descend Hoverla with my eyes closed. Traditionally, on the 23rd of August, the Flag Day, I climb to the top every year. There was a gap only twice - in 2014, because of the war, and in 2015, my friends didn't let me go. They said my body had not yet recovered from the injury. In 2016, I decided to organise a hike. They said it was crazy and a big load on my exhausted body.

But I'm used to achieving my goals!

In 2015, I got on a kayak, and at first it didn't work out, I kept tipping over. However, over time, I mastered this sport and still take part in national and international competitions.

Recently, at the qualifying stage of the Invictus Games international competition, I won two gold medals in sitting basketball and volleyball.

A Genium X3 ultra-modern prosthesis with a knee unit allowed me to lead an active lifestyle, play sports on land and in water. It is not afraid of water, very mobile and comfortable. This prosthesis was fitted to me 7 years ago in Italy.

Now the time has come to replace it. Unfortunately, there are not enough funds allocated by the state for the installation of this or a similar prosthesis. So I have to turn to charity for help. I want to get a Proteor Quattro prosthesis with a knee unit, which I can use both in life and in sports.

There have been changes in the legislation regulating prosthetics funded by the state budget, including an increase in the maximum prices for state-funded prosthetics. As a result, the required co-payment for Serhii Pandrak's Proteor Quattro prosthesis has been reduced to 350,777.96 UAH.

TOTAL COST OF PROSTHETICS: 1,546,593.96 UAH

State payment (maximum price): 1,195,819 UAH

Co-payment by the Citizen Charity Foundation: 350,774.96 UAH

We sincerely thank you for supporting wounded defenders!

This case is a shining example of successful cooperation between the state, represented by the Social Protection Fund for Persons with Disabilities, and the Citizen Charity Foundation. Through joint efforts, we have been able to provide the defender with the best prosthesis, which will expand his capabilities and allow him to be an active teacher, athlete, and grandfather.