Soldier Andrii Syzon, call sign PHARAOH

I am a career serviceman. On April 5, 2021, I joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I completed my conscript service in the Separate Presidential Regiment named after Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. I served as a radiotelegraph operator. I stood in formation at the Independence Day parade in 2021. Back then, it was about honor. Now I understand — it was also about responsibility that came very soon after.

On November 26, 2021, I signed my first contract. I became a rifleman, assistant grenade launcher operator.

I met the war on alert — I arrived at my unit without hesitation. We defended Kyiv, the government quarter. In March 2022, I signed a second contract — this time as a sergeant. I trained in Ukraine and abroad, worked with newly mobilized soldiers. I passed on what I knew myself.

From May 15, 2023, I was in the east — on the Avdiivka direction, near Krasnohorivka, close to the coke plant. It is never quiet there.

On September 30, the first assaults began directly on my position. The enemy advanced on infantry fighting vehicles. We repelled that assault. It was hard. We lost comrades. But we also captured four militants. The next day — another assault. And again, we held our ground. Then the mortar shelling began. I remember the blast… and how I was hit.

A fragment struck my head.

I regained consciousness for a few minutes. Everything around was roaring from explosions — mortars, artillery. My brothers-in-arms saved me. They dragged me into cover, removed my shattered helmet, bandaged my head. Then they carried me to another position under fire, closer to evacuation.

The shelling resumed. They dragged me into a trench, bandaged me again. When it became a bit quieter, they carried me further, to the last line. There, a fellow soldier picked me up on a buggy and handed me over to the battalion medics.

What happened next — I don’t remember. Coma.

I regained consciousness in Kyiv, in a hospital. I don’t know how long I was in a coma. They say from three to ten days. I stayed in the hospital until October 24. Then — “Oberih” clinic, where they began to help me get back on my feet. Since December 25 — again hospitals, rehabilitation, constant struggle.

At the beginning of May 2024, I was discharged from service due to my health condition.

Now I live with the consequences of the injury — I have left-sided hemiparesis, essentially paralysis. I am learning to move again. Learning to control my arm, to take steps. It is hard. And it takes time.

But I did not give up there and I will not give up here.

I am searching for recovery opportunities myself. And right now, I really need specialized rehabilitation at the “Western Rehabilitation and Sports Center” of NCSIU. It is a chance to restore movement, strength, and control over my body. But such rehabilitation is expensive. I cannot afford it on my own.

I have a dream.

Hoverla.

I climbed it before the full-scale war. And I want to do it again. On my own feet. To stand on the summit. To feel that same sense of freedom.

The war is close. It is in my story. In my body. In every movement that comes through pain. A rehabilitation course is an important step toward recovery. A step toward life. A step toward my Hoverla.

 

COLLECTING: UAH 90,000